LAWMAKERS CONSIDER LESSENING CRACK PENALTIES

Federal Guidelines Require Heavier Sentences Than For Powder Cocaine

Momentum is building in Congress to ease crack cocaine sentencing
guidelines, which the American Civil Liberties Union and other
critics say have filled prisons with low-level drug dealers and
addicts whose punishments were much worse than their crimes.

Federal prison sentences for possessing or selling crack have far
exceeded those for powder cocaine for two decades. House crime
subcommittee Chairman Robert Scott, D-Va., a longtime critic of such
sentencing policies, plans to hold hearings on crack sentences this
year. In the Senate, Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama is drawing
bipartisan support for his proposal to ease crack sentences.

"I believe that as a matter of law enforcement and good public policy
that crack cocaine sentences are too heavy and can't be justified,"
Sessions says. "People don't want us to be soft on crime, but I think
we ought to make the law more rational."

The mandatory federal sentencing guidelines passed by Congress in
1986 require a judge to impose the same sentence for possession of 5
grams of crack as for 500 grams of powder cocaine: five years in prison.

Congress passed the sentencing laws just after the fatal crack
overdose of University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias on June
19, 1986, and as crack was emerging in urban areas, says Alfred
Blumstein, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh
who researches crime. Crack cocaine was associated with violent,
open-air drug markets, he says.

"There was a lot of public concern about violence," Blumstein says.

Jesselyn McCurdy with the ACLU says much of the violence associated
with crack stemmed from territorial disputes between dealers, not
from those using the drug. She says the stricter sentences for crack
have filled prisons with low-level, primarily African-American
addicts rather than the major drug traffickers Congress sought to
punish. An ACLU study in October 2006 found that 80% of crack
defendants were black.

"People have seen how it plays out in racial disparities," McCurdy
says. "The stumbling block on both sides of the aisle has been this
issue around appearing to be soft on crime. But this is about
equalizing an injustice."

Sessions' bill would lessen the sentencing disparity by increasing
punishments for powder cocaine and decreasing them for crack. Crimes
involving crack would still draw stiffer sentences, but the
difference would not be as dramatic. The bill has drawn support from
Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar, a former state attorney general from
Colorado, Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor, a former state attorney general
from Arkansas, and Republican Sen. John Cornyn, a former Texas
Supreme Court justice and attorney general.

In the House of Representatives, two bills calling for Congress to
equalize the sentences for powder cocaine and crack were filed in
January. "We're going to address all the mandatory minimums," said
Scott, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on
Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. "The crack cocaine is
probably the most egregious because of its draconian number of years
for relatively small amounts."

Opposition to weaker sentences has come from police, prosecutors and
law enforcement agencies such as the Justice Department and the Drug
Enforcement Administration.

"We believe the current federal sentencing policy and guidelines for
crack cocaine offenses are reasonable," Justice spokesman Dean Boyd says.

Higher penalties for crack offenses reflect the drug's greater harm,
he says, adding that crack traffickers are more likely to use weapons
and have more significant criminal histories than powder cocaine dealers.

"Congress thought by having very harsh sentences, it would deter the
spread of crack into the inner cities and around the country,"
Sessions says. "The truth is, it didn't stop it. It spread very
rapidly. Now we need to ask ourselves, what is the right sentence for
this bad drug? I think it's time to adjust. I think it's past time to do this."

Scientists say there is no pharmaceutical justification for having
different sentencing rules for crack and powder cocaine.

The powder is cocaine hydrochloride salt, which can be snorted into
the nose or dissolved in water and injected. Crack is cocaine mixed
with water and ammonia or baking soda then heated to remove the
hydrochloride. The resulting pure cocaine rock can be smoked.

"Once the cocaine is in your bloodstream, there's absolutely no
difference between powder cocaine and crack cocaine," says Bruce
Goldberger, director of toxicology at the University of Florida
College of Medicine.

The quicker the drug enters the bloodstream, the more intense its
effects, he said. Two of the quickest routes are smoking, which is
done with crack, and injecting, which is done by dissolving the
powder and shooting it into the bloodstream.