More on Crack vs. Powder Cocaine
Eric Sterling, former Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary from 1979 through 1989, was a principal aide in developing the Anti-Drug Abuse Acts of 1986 and 1988. Since then, he has been president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. From his opinion piece (Take Another Crack at That Cocaine Law) in today’s L.A. Times:
One of our most infamous contemporary laws is the 100-1 difference in sentencing between crack cocaine and powder cocaine…Working for the House Judiciary Committee in 1986, I wrote the House bill that was the basis for that law. We made some terrible mistakes.
Those mistakes, aggravated by the Justice Department's misuse of the penalties, have been a disaster. Conventional wisdom is that the 100-1 ratio needs to be repealed. But that's an inadequate fix.
He proposes not only eliminating the powder vs. crack cocaine disparity, but raising the amount necessary to trigger federal prosecution to 50 Kilos of cocaine (unless the Attorney General approved prosecution of a lesser quantity).
For more from Sterling read his paper “Getting Justice Off Its Junk Food Diet”, where he explains, among other things that only 7 percent of federal cocaine cases are directed at high level traffickers, and that a third of federal prosecutions involve average cocaine amounts the weight of a candy bar.
(Hat Tip: How Appealing)
