From: "Peter F. Couvares" <[p f couvar] at [unix.amherst.edu]>
Subject: Re:  Campaigning on Crime
To: [net tank] at [ogre.cica.indiana.edu] (net-tank)
Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1993 12:38:38 -0500 (EST)

[REDACTED] at [silat.bellcore.com] (Daniel Liebster) wrote:
>[p f couvar] at [unix.amherst.edu] (Peter Couvares) wrote:
>> newsletter, 91.5% of federal crack defendants are black, and the 5
>> grams of crack (the form of cocaine most used by blacks) needed to
>> bring a mandatory five years without parole is 100 times less than the
>> amount of cocaine needed to bring the same sentence.
> 
> Are you sure about that figure? Off hand it sounds like a pound
> cocaine could have a stiffer sentence than 5 years.

(Remember, these are federal mandatory minimums, not maximum
sentences.) As said, the figure is from an article reprinted in a
FAMM newsletter, so I don't have the original author's source. The
article, entitled "Sentences for crack called racist: Terms longer for
drug used primarily by young blacks", was written by Dennis Cauchon
for the 5/26/93 issue of USA Today. Here are the actual passages:

	"Crack cocaine is punished far more severly than powder
cocaine under federal law: one gram of crack counts as 100 grams of
powder in sentencing rules. But this 100-to-1 ratio -- set in 1986
amid growing concern about crack and associated violence -- is under
attack. [...]
	"Under the federal law, five grams of crack (the weight of two
pennies) gets a mandatory minimum of five years without parole. Fifty
grams gets 10 years. For the same sentence, a person would need 100
times as much powder cocaine."

	It goes on to quote a number of government and medical
officials, one of whom specifically mentions "the 100-to-1 ratio".
Obviously you'd need to find the original source for a figure like
this if you were to use it in a campaign, however I don't think that
should be difficult.

-Peter

--
-- [p f couvar] at [unix.amherst.edu] (Peter Couvares)
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