WASHINGTON (AP) President Clinton today embraced a recommendation from his
attorney general to narrow the 100fold disparity between crack and powder
cocaine sentences and urged Congress to reach ``an acceptable resolution.''

Attorney General Janet Reno and retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the president's
drug policy adviser, proposed that those selling 25 grams of crack and 250
grams of powdered cocaine receive the same mandatory fiveyear prison
sentence.

Clinton gave the idea his support before meeting with his budget advisers at
the White House.

``I have accepted it, and I have urged them now to go to work immediately
with the Congress to try to reach an acceptable resolution of this,'' the
president said.

Under current law, selling 5 grams of crack draws a fiveyear sentence. A
dealer of powdered cocaine would have to sell 500 grams to receive the same
amount of prison time.

Critics of the disparity say it is unfair to minorities who possess crack,
which is cheaper but no worse than powder. Others say crack is far more
addictive than powder cocaine and causes much more violence among dealers.

Reno's recommendation, made in a July 3 letter to Clinton, appears to fall
somewhere in the middle. She echoed the sentiments of an April 29 report by
the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which proposed narrowing the disparity while
leaving high penalties for crack possession in place.

``Those who sell crack ought to be punished more,'' Reno told black police
executives in Miami on Monday, noting the violence and havoc it wreaks on
inner cities. But she said the disparity was far too extreme, and was
perceived as unfair in the black community.

``I want the (sentencing policy) to be one that is fair, and one that the
community thinks is fair,'' Reno told the National Organization of Black Law
Enforcement Executives. ``I want it to be one that also imposes a fair, stiff
penalty that fits the crime.''

Reno may have opposition from some members in Congress, where the proposed
change must be approved. But besides Clinton and McCaffrey, her
recommendation also enjoys support among many federal judges and prosecutors.

Those in the federal system have argued in the past that the laws forced them
to treat crack ``mules,'' or people who delivered the drug, the same as
powder cocaine traffickers.

In 1995, the sentencing commission recommended equalizing the penalties for
possession and sale of the two varieties, partly because of complaints of
racial bias. More than 90 percent of defendants in the more heavily penalized
crack cases are black, compared with only 25 percent of powder defendants.

The issue has been before the courts. A federal appeals court had rejected
the racialbias argument, and the Supreme Court declined without comment to
overturn the ruling.

``Congress has not acted with a discriminatory purpose in setting greater
penalties for cocaine base crimes than for powder cocaine offenses,'' the
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled.

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