Crack cocaine was seen as a scourge destroying black communities (remember all the talk of crack babies and crack whores) while powdered cocaine was seen as a little bit of upper and upper middle class nose candy. Sure an occasional person would drop over dead from a heart attack and some people had to have their noses surgically rebuilt, but other than that it was seen as harmless fun to be joked about.
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.
You’re 100% correct from my research. This is why there is such a disaprity
And it was Biden who spearheaded it to look tough on crime