Posted on 09/28/2021 12:52:47 PM PDT by RandFan
The House of Representatives passed legislation today that would finally erase the sentencing disparity between federal crack and powder cocaine offenses.
By a wide bipartisan vote of 361-66, the House passed the Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law (EQUAL) Act, H.R. 1693. The legislation would reduce the penalties for federal crack cocaine offenses to the same level as those for powder cocaine offenses, and it would make those changes retroactive, meaning federal crack offenders currently serving prison sentences will be eligible to have their sentences reduced.
Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), where it faces a less certain future. The White House endorsed the legislation in June, and if it passes Congress, the law would close the book on one of the most regrettable pieces of President Joe Biden's legacy.
In 1986, then-Sen. Biden (D–Del.) co-sponsored the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, one of the most disastrous laws passed in the 1980s by lawmakers posturing as tough-on-crime. The law created a 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenders, the former of whom were predominantly black. The result was that someone possessing five grams of crack cocaine would receive the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence as someone with 500 grams of powder cocaine, despite there being little to no pharmacological difference between the two substances.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission reported that black people made up nearly 77 percent of all federal crack cocaine convictions in fiscal year 2020.
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
Meanwhile, his son...
I see nothing objectionable about this.
Never heard of this either that there are two types of cocaine and that they were criminalized at different levels...
Don’t know how I made it almost 88 years with that gap in important knowledge... /s
Just say no.
What discrepancy? You mean how quickly they are all released to commit more crimes against minority citizens in all Blue cities? Add to that the potential great increase in the illegal importation of Fentanyl by the Biden allied Mexican Cartels, and you have an Equal Utopia never before imagined! Widespread Equal Death.
Crack cocaine vs Powder cocaine vs Hunter cocaine.
The increased sentencing for crack cocaine was DEMANDED by liberals, especially the black congress bruthahood or whatever they called themselves.
I see no problem with equalizing them.
Except this should only affect federal charges which is probably a small %.
Hunter’s cig is only 1/2 gone.
That’s not too much Global Warming emissions.
Oh!
Maybe he is inhaling it — to save the Planet.
Just like Billy C. Oops, he never inhaled.
I believe the difference is how it's used. Powder snorted, crack smoked.
Smoking it gave a stronger high and, apparently, sped up the downward slide of addiction. Crack users were pretty much homeless or dead within a year.
Sounds like a quick way to release a lot of crackheads. 🤪
Just what we needed.
It probably went get through the Senate they say
won’t*
Never heard of this either that there are two types of cocaine and that they were criminalized at different levels...
Rich people do powder and get probation when caught.
Poor people do crack, commit crimes to feed the habit and die a lot.
I bet if you did a little bit of digging you could find people like Jesse Jackson demanding severe penalties for crack users and dealers... unless it has been shoved down the memory hole to that place inconvenient history goes to die.
Still does.
Ditto.
Even better would be get rid of Federal laws on drugs altogether. Keeping drugs illegal makes the Cartels rich.
Criminal justice advocates have lobbied for decades to roll back the law. In 2007, Biden endorsed legislation that would have completely eliminated the disparity. A compromise bill, the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, reduced it from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1.
In 2018, the FIRST Step Act made the Fair Sentencing Act’s reductions retroactive, leading to the release of roughly 3,000 federal crack offenders.
This bill equalizes it I believe....
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