Updating the Crack/Powder Cocaine Sentencing Review
The Sentencing Project updates last week’s Sentencing Commission hearings on reforming the harsh penalties created by the disparity in Federal law for crack vs. powder cocaine. Although United States Attorney R. Alexander Acosta testified that the differences were reasonable…
A number of Commissioners also expressed concern that the current crack cocaine law was ineffective in targeting the upper echelon of drug distributors. According to Acosta’s own testimony, the highest level cocaine trafficking takes place almost exclusively in the powder form.
This was affirmed by Joseph Rannazzisi of the Drug Enforcement Administration, who noted that crack cocaine sellers are at the lowest end of the powder cocaine distribution chain, and that it is his experience, that crack is primarily produced and sold in very small quantities.
