EQUALIZE PENALTIES

Two U.S. Senators - conservative Republicans - have introduced a bill
to correct the imbalance in federal drug laws: The Sessions-Hatch Bill
seeks to end the disparity in sentences for possession of powdered
cocaine vs. crack cocaine. This is a worthy and long overdue effort.

Sens. Orin Hatch, R-Utah, and Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, propose a
necessary reform.

The federal government increased penalties for the crack form of
cocaine in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They also mandated the
increased penalties.

The myth of the time was that crack caused instant addiction and crazy
instability in its users. Today, doctors say that crack and old-
fashioned powdered cocaine have basically the same effect. That does
not make crack good; it only makes it as destructive as the powder.

As the law stands, a defendant must have 100 times the amount of
powdered cocaine than crack, in order to bring stiff mandatory
sentencing laws into effect.

One unexpected but disastrous consequence of this has been to fill the
prisons with crack cocaine users, who are disproportionately black.

Sessions and Hatch want to raise the amount of crack a defendant might
have before mandatory penalties; and to lower the amount of powdered
cocaine. The ratio might be 20 to 1, not 100 to 1.

Note that their approach is still punitive. After two decades of a
failed drug war, addiction seems more a medical problem and less a
police problem. Sessions and Hatch have not had the last word.

Even so, the Senate and House should listen to what the two say: End
the disparity.