END U.S. DRUG-LAW DISPARITY

Most jurists, lawmakers and legal experts today recognize that the
disparity in federal mandatory sentences for sale and possession of
crack cocaine and powdered cocaine is grossly unfair.

Congress, however, has been slow to eliminate the discrepancy. It's
time that it did.

The sentencing guidelines, contained in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of
1986, state that a conviction for distribution of 500 grams of
expensive powdered cocaine carries a five-year mandatory minimum
sentence, while the same penalty is triggered for distribution of
only 5 grams of cheap crack. That's a 100-to-1 difference.

The rule was based on the false premise that crack was more potent
than cocaine and that, as a consequence, crack caused violent
behavior -- theories that science long ago discredited.

All that the guidelines have accomplished is to punish low-income
minorities, African Americans in particular, more severely than
affluent whites. Moreover, the law targets street addicts and
low-level dealers, but has never met its stated goal of taking down
top drug kingpins.

Congress, even as it acknowledges that the law is unjust, has so far
refused to change the guidelines for fear of appearing soft on crime.

Two events last year should make it easier for Congress to amend the
law this time around. The first was a Dec. 10 ruling by the U.S.
Supreme Court allowing federal judges to hand down more lenient
sentences for crack offenders than those called for in the guidelines.

Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted unanimously
to allow about 19,500 federal prison inmates serving time for crack
distribution to seek reductions of up to two years in their sentences.

Congress is considering several bills that promise to either end or
reduce the disparity. The Drug Sentencing Reform and Cocaine Kingpin
Trafficking Act of 2007, sponsored by Sen. Joseph R. Biden of
Delaware, would apply the same sentences to equal amounts of crack
and cocaine. A comparable proposal is being sponsored in the House
by Rep. Charles Rangel of New York.

Two more measures, sponsored by Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah
and Jeff Sessions of Alabama, would lower the disparity to 20-to-1.

Connecticut passed a law two years ago that eliminated the gap in
sentencing entirely by setting the threshold that would guarantee
prison time at 14 grams for possession of either crack or powdered
cocaine.

Congress should follow the state's lead and act accordingly.