TWO PERSPECTIVES ERASE DRUG DISPARITY

Whether you snort it or smoke it, cocaine is cocaine. Whether it comes as
powder or in the form of a rock, cocaine is cocaine, and it's addictive.

There's no debate about the addictive nature of cocaine. And there seems to
be little disagreement among local Democratic and Republican legislators
that cocaine use should be treated equally by the law whether that use
involves powder or rocks.

A bill co-sponsored by Rep. Tom Lendrum, R-Huron, and Rep. Chris Redfern,
D-Catawba Island, seeks to make penalties for possession and distribution
of the two forms of cocaine equal.

While crack is more addictive than powder cocaine, its users represent
different economic and racial groups than those that use the snortable
form. It's unfortunate that people with greater means have been able to
avoid stiffer penalties by their choice of illegal drug.

Under the current law, someone arrested with less than five grams of powder
cocaine or less than a gram of crack would be charged with a fifth-degree
felony punishable by up to 12 months in prison. Someone arrested with one
to five grams of crack would be charged with a fourth-degree felony that is
punishable by up to 18 months in prison.

Because law enforcement agencies target crack, and crack users tend to be
poor and minorities more often than powder cocaine users, punishment is
weighted against groups that can least afford it. That's been the liberal
take on the disparity over sentencing.

The conservative take is that cocaine is cocaine.

This isn't to say that we should look the other way when someone lights up
a crack pipe -- it's still a scourge. But we should keep our collective
eyes open to the unfairness engendered by drug laws that offer different
degrees of punishment for different forms of the same drug, especially when
the form of choice is often determined by social factors.

We're fortunate that our partisan politicians can see an unfair system in
action from two different perspectives and arrive at the same answer.