A Draconian Double Standard on Drugs

Human Events ^ | 2/1/07 | steve chapman

[traviskicks]

Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.

[mysterio]

The fWO(s)D is a farce.

[Lx]

Damn this crack habit!

This is as bad as the, "eveyone will have AIDS by 1990"; Oprah told me so!

[antiRepublicrat]

It's simple. Poor people do crack. Rich people do coke. It's easy to send a nobody poor kid away for 20 over a baggie of crack, but it's not so good to send your rich Hollywood donors away for 20 over their coke baggies.

[Freedom_no_exceptions]

But it's no crazier than the federal law on crack cocaine.

And it's no crazier than the fact that we even have a FEDERAL law on crack cocaine.

[RebelBanker]

The supreme irony is that the liberal do-gooders were the ones who screamed for the harsher penalties for crack because it was going to be the scourge of the black community. Now these same liberal dingbats are screaming about the disparate impact of the policy they demanded in the first place!

[TheKidster]

Don't forget that we would not have crack if the WOD hadn't driven up coke prices due to the fed's enforcement of the tax free, black market monopoly the cartels enjoy. We were lucky ice didn't make it over from Hawaii

[cpdiii]

"And it's no crazier than the fact that we even have a FEDERAL law on crack cocaine."

Agreed. The solution to the drug problem is not that hard. Make it legal and at the same time extend help to those that truly want to get off of drugs, most will not. Once they have cheap and easy access to the drugs many will remove themselves from the gene pool by overdose. A very small minority will seek help and become clean. Over half the crime in this country is drug related. This would end with legalization. It is societies duty to protect the innocents. The present laws put the innocents at risk of drug related crime. I do not give one good damn if a junkie overdoses. I do care if he sticks a gun in my face and robs me or my family or harms us. It should be noted that alcohol consumption went down after prohibition ended.

[sgtbono2002]

***Before the 1986 law, "the average federal drug sentence for African-Americans was 11 percent higher than for whites. Four years later, the average federal drug sentence for African-Americans was 49 percent higher." ****

Proves they havent gotten any smarter.

Drugs destroy families. Drugs destroy lives, Drugs aid terrorists. Drug users are losers.

People who want to legalise addiction are nuts.

Just leave the crap alone.

OK start the flames losers.

[-=SoylentSquirrel=-]

The way it was explained to me was that crack users and dealers perpetrated a lot more violence than powder cocaine users and dealers, thus the disparity.

Similar to heroin users burglerize homes at a far higher rate than marijuana users.

[robertpaulsen]

I'm reading ... reading ... looking for it ... waiting for it ... and then:

"Instead, it has been felt most among African-Americans, who are more prone to use crack."

Ah. Never fails.

Why are African-Americans "more prone"? They're not any more prone than anyone else. They're more likely to use crack because it's cheaper. (plus the high is more intense and reached more quickly.)

In that sense, it's more addictive and dangerous. The penaly should be harsher.

[robertpaulsen]

"The ACLU notes that while blacks make up 15 percent of the nation's drug users, they constitute 74 percent of those sentenced to prison on drug charges."

Hey Steve, how about being a little more truthful with your statistics? How about something like:

"Since blacks make up 74 percent of the nation's drug dealers, they constitute 74 percent of those sentenced to prison on drug charges."

You go to a white neighborhood when you want drugs, Steve?

[robertpaulsen]

"The fWO(s)D is a farce."

Oh, I think the bGQ(i)D&F is worse.

[mugs99]

OK start the flames losers.

COPS SAY LEGALIZE DRUGS!
The stated goals of current U.S.drug policy -- reducing crime, drug addiction, and juvenile drug use -- have not been achieved, even after nearly four decades of a policy of "war on drugs". This policy, fueled by over a trillion of our tax dollars has had little or no effect on the levels of drug addiction among our fellow citizens, but has instead resulted in a tremendous increase in crime and in the numbers of Americans in our prisons and jails. With 4.6% of the world's population, America today has 22.5% of the worlds prisoners. But, after all that time, after all the destroyed lives and after all the wasted resources, prohibited drugs today are cheaper, stronger, and easier to get than they were thirty-five years ago at the beginning of the so-called "war on drugs"....Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
.

[robertpaulsen]

"The United States Sentencing Commission, the federal agency charged with reviewing sentencing policy, has repeatedly urged Congress to reduce the disparity."

I, too, urge Congress to reduce the disparity -- increase the penalties for powdered cocaine to match that of crack.

[robertpaulsen]

"It's easy to send a nobody poor kid away for 20 over a baggie of crack, but it's not so good to send your rich Hollywood donors away for 20 over their coke baggies."

Now wouldn't you think this "nobody poor kid" knows better than anyone else just how true this is? And yet ....

[robertpaulsen]

"And it's no crazier than the fact that we even have a FEDERAL law on crack cocaine."

Oh, like you'd accept a STATE law with open arms.

[robertpaulsen]

"Don't forget that we would not have crack if the WOD hadn't driven up coke prices"

Up? I thought "drug prices were down, demonstrating the failure of the WOD" or some such nonsense. Which is it?

You guys need to pick a "fact" and stick with it.

[L98Fiero]

With essentially every issue and even some non-issues all blamed on whites because we are white, it surprizes me a bit that sombody hasn't snapped. It's a testament, really.

If the national media and college intellectuals blamed the worlds ills on blacks, they would be marching in the streets by the millions and boycotting everything in sight. We just go, "Nuh-uh!" and watch it get worse.

Let's see...national media falsely baming you for all the world's problems....intellectuals writing papers about the flawed nature of a your group's religion and culture.....other groups are allowed to openly ridicule your group......disallowed to form organizations within your group.....

Sounds all too familiar to me.