COCAINE DISTINCTIONS

Regarding Supervisor Gavin Newsom's letter (Feb. 16) in which he advocates
bringing sentencing for crack cocaine possession more into line with that
of powdered cocaine: I agree that present sentencing is inequitable, often
unfairly targets both African Americans and Latinos and should be changed.
However, in order to support his argument Newsom states that "both forms of
this drug produce the same pharmacological effect."

Without digressing on the dissimilar nature of variant cocaine "hits," I
point out that the difference in intensity between smoking "freebase"
(crack cocaine) and ingesting "hydrochloride" (powdered) cocaine through
the nose is in the region of perhaps 10 to one.

Hugh Keith-Johnston
San Francisco