Nation Briefing -- Washington

REPEAL OF CRACK COCAINE LAW IS URGED

Congress should repeal a law that puts first-time offenders behind
bars for at least five years for possessing tiny amounts of crack
cocaine, the Sentencing Commission said. Enacted during the crack
epidemic of the 1980s, the law imposes the mandatory minimum sentence
for possessing five grams of crack, which weighs the same as five
paper clips. It takes a hundred times the amount of powder cocaine to
result in the same prison term as for crack, the commission said.