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