BUSH FAILS TO ADDRESS RACIALLY DISPARATE DRUG SENTENCING

As a black law student, I was disturbed, though not surprised, by the Bush
administration's recent position regarding disparities in sentencing for
powdered cocaine and crack cocaine.

Despite widespread criticism that current drug policy unfairly punishes
blacks and Latinos by imposing harsher sentences for crack cocaine, the
administration declared its opposition to any reduction.

Present guidelines impose a minimum prison sentence of five years for
possessing five grams of crack, but you get the same sentence for
possessing as much as 500 grams of the powdered form. Powdered cocaine is
the drug of preference for whites. Minorities bear the brunt of the harsh
sentencing because they are more likely to use crack cocaine.

This is even though the rate of drug use among people of color is similar
to whites, according to federal health statistics. And there is no real
difference between the two forms of cocaine.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission has noted that "powder cocaine and crack
cocaine are two forms of the same drug, containing the same active
ingredient," and has concluded that there is no scientific or
pharmacological evidence to justify treating crack as 100 times more
dangerous than powder cocaine.

The different treatment of powder and crack cocaine offenses has "clearly
discriminatory effect on minority defendants convicted of crack offenses,"
says Ronald Weich, vice chair of the American Bar Association. Weich, a
former assistant district attorney in New York County, declared that the
differences represent a "major instance of the appearance of race
discrimination in the administration of justice."

Meanwhile, the Bush position seems regressive even by conservative
Republican standards. Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.,
have introduced legislation that would lower the sentencing ratio to 20 to 1.

By advocating racially disparate drug sentencing, the Bush administration
is harming people of color. The prevailing sentencing guidelines are
unfair, undemocratic and make a mockery of the notion of equal justice
under the law.