CRACK COCAINE SENTENCING GUIDELINES NEED CHANGES

Twenty years ago, Congress passed an unwise, unjust law mandating
long prison terms for people caught with small amounts of crack
cocaine. As a result, small-time users, dealers and couriers --
overwhelmingly poor black men -- are locked up for years while
big-time traffickers keep cocaine supplies flowing.

The law requires five years in prison for five grams of crack cocaine
- -- the weight of a few sugar packets; it takes 500 grams of powder
cocaine to trigger the same sentence. It's time to change the law.

In 1995, 1997 and 2002, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which advises
Congress and the federal judiciary, called for eliminating or
modifying the 100-to-1 disparity in cocaine penalties. But nobody
wanted to look soft on drugs.

Tuesday, the commission held new hearings. U.S. District Judge Reggie
B. Walton, deputy drug czar in the elder Bush's administration,
called the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity "unconscionable." Minorities
see harsh sentences for crack, primarily an inner-city drug, as proof
courts are biased, he said. It's expected the commission will try
again to get Congress to revise the 1986 law.

Federal crack defendants aren't drug kingpins: The commission
estimates 73 percent of crack defendants were low-level street
dealers, couriers or lookouts, writes Marc Mauer of the Sentencing
Project. "The commission also has found that crack cocaine sentences
are the single most significant factor contributing to racial
disparity in federal sentencing."

In 1995, the Sentencing Commission urged equalizing penalties for
crack and powder cocaine. President Clinton and Congress just said
no. Told to try again, the commission suggested a 5-to-1 disparity in
1997. Nothing happened.

In 2001, President Bush supported "making sure the powder-cocaine and
the crack-cocaine penalties are the same. I don't believe we ought to
be discriminatory."

In 2002, Bush's Justice Department opposed reducing crack penalties,
arguing that crack cocaine causes more violence and addiction than
powder cocaine because it's typically sold in small, cheap doses.
Justice called for reducing the 100-to-1 disparity by raising
penalties for powder cocaine.

That's still the administration's position, but there are signs of
good sense in Congress. Earlier this year, bipartisan legislation was
introduced to raise the amount of crack needed to trigger federal
penalties, while lowering the amount of powder cocaine. Action is
possible in 2007.

Just reducing the 100-to-1 disparity isn't enough.

A better idea comes from Eric Sterling, who helped write the 1986
anti-crack law as a House Judiciary staffer. Now president of the
Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, Sterling argues that the new law
should "raise the quantity triggers for all drugs to realistic levels
for high-level traffickers, such as 50 or 100 kilos of cocaine."

Federal prosecutors should focus resources on the big fish. State and
local authorities can prosecute the small fry.