Prior to today, if a person was convicted of having one gram of crack cocaine in his possession, he would received a mandatory five years prison time. A person with powder cocaine must have 100 grams to get the same mandatory sentence of five years. Hence, the 100:1 ratio.
The Obama's Fair Sentencing Act law narrows the ratio from 100:1 to 18:1. Although, Obama's law is a step in the right direction; he could have done much better by reducing the ration to 1:1.
President Obama campaigned on a platform that included closing the sentencing gap. From the beginning, the unbalance crack 100:1 ratio was targeted towards African-American. Crack cocaine users tend to be mostly poorer, African Americans or Hispanics. Powder cocaine users are usually white blue-collar suburbanites. The reality here is, a crack is a crack is a crack.
The Fair Sentencing Act, was introduced by Illinois Senate Dick Durbin. According to Durbin, “We have talked about the need to address the crack -powder sentencing disparity for far too long. With the Fair Sentencing Act now the law of the land, we’ve finally addressed one of the greatest injustices in our war on drugs,” Durbin said. “Drug use is still a serious problem in America and we need tough legislation to combat it. But in addition to being tough, our drug laws must be smart and fair. This bipartisan bill is both.”
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