Powder Cocaine Vs Crack

The coca leaves used to make cocaine has played a large part in our history. However, crack cocaine was not synthesized until the 1970s when cocaine was very popular. Then came a source of a new drug, crack cocaine which swept the nation of America. Due to an immense influx of cocaine, the value decreased predominantly, though it was still considered a drug for the high class. So when crack hit, mainly in the inner cities, it took a drastic turn for the

Most of us would agree that drug abuse and addiction is no respecter of persons. Regardless of age, race, gender, or economic status drug addiction can rear its ugly head in any situation. Like most Americans, I have personally been affected by the pitfalls of drug addiction from relatives and friends. Therefore, I have witnessed firsthand the devastation that it leaves on family members, friends, and the communities, in which they reside. Since its inception in 1986 the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, as caused more harm than good. At the start of this Act, Congress implemented maximum drug quantities initially targeted at “serious” and “major” drug traffickers. Congress concluded that 500 grams of powder cocaine would trigger a five-year mandatory minimum, and five kilograms would trigger a ten-year mandatory minimum. However, for crack cocaine the triggering quantities were significantly less. Only five grams of crack cocaine would prompt five-years and just fifty grams to prompt a ten-year sentence. This massive gap became known as the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity. Soon after several states began to legislate sentencing disparities between powder cocaine and crack cocaine into their criminal codes. The original targets of

Alexander argument is the War on Drugs was purposely started to mass incarcerate African Americans. With the new Drug War, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 was passed. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act punished crack cocaine a hundred times harder than powder cocaine. Crack and powder cocaine are the same drug, however different effects on the human body. According to the US Department of Justice, crake cocaine has a more psychological effect than powder, which leads to more people becoming addicted to the drug and heavier usage of the drug. Crack cocaine caused a great deal of violence, family deterioration, abuse, and neglect. Powder cocaine did cause abuse and violence, however powder cocaine make people want to go to the club, dance, drink, and have

But if a drug is the same, and you have the same amount wouldn't you think that you would be charged and given the same sentencing? Well, in the United States court system this is not the case. There are different charges for powdered cocaine as there is for crack cocaine (the smokable version of cocaine). Research shows that both of these drugs have the same effect on the human body, if it is either smoked or snorted. But with the racial ideas and laws that the United States puts in these two drugs are treated completely differently. Also, according to the book, The New Jim Crow, written by Michelle Alexander, "They also argued that the law discriminates against African Americans, because the majority of those charged with crimes involving crack at that time were black (approximately 93 percent of convicted crack offenders were black, 5 percent were white), whereas powder cocaine offenders were predominantly white.”(90). Crack cocaine is known as an inner city drug, and who lives in the inner city? Black and colored people. And who typically uses the powdered form of cocaine? Whites. This shows how internally racist the government is. Also stated in the book The New Jim Crow “Slavery defined what it meant to be black (a slave), and Jim Crow defined what it meant to be black (a second-class citizen). Today mass incarceration defines the meaning of blackness in America:

This debunk the ideology of the targeting of crack for major crime organization and it was use towards imprisoning a specific racial community with punitive sentencing. Many studies soon came out in stereotyping crack cocaine as one of the most addictive drugs and created false claims that the media ran with. In 1995 the Sentencing commission challenge congress into asking for a reform of federal criminal sentencing through the matter. In 1993 there was a report by the Commission between the correlation between those who were sentenced to prison terms because of crack cocaine and in those who used the drug,”Report found that blacks accounted for 83.3 percent of federal crack cocaine convictions, Hispanics 7.1 percent and whites constituted a meager 4.1 percent.”(Percival, 124). The perception of these numbers would insinuate that African Americans tend to be the ones who either consume or distribute this drug but a Household survey showed a different perception in correlation with those who are imprisoned because of this drug, “ 52 percent of the people who reported using crack were white, 38 percent were black and 10 percent were hispanic”(Percival, 124). White people seemed to make up the more than half of the those who use it and yet are the ones who are least subjected to

Crack cocaine has been popular since the 1970s and mid 1980s. Crack cocaine is not a new drug; this drug is obtained from coca plant which grows mainly in South America. For many years, the native South American Indians chewed its leaves to develop strength and increased energy. By the 1800s, the cocaine was secluded from its leaves and used as a medicinal drug. By the late 1800s, it was used as an anesthetic and to avert surgical hemorrhage. The next century, people recognized crack cocaine an addictive narcotic and its non-medical use of the drug was ended by the Harrison Narcotics Act in 1914 (“How crack cocaine works?”).

The federal law, which punished crack offenses at a rate 100 times that of powdered cocaine, is a racist policy. The criminal justice system penalties for possession of crack, a drug often used by poor African American are more harsher than the penalties for the possession of powdered cocaine, whose users are white people. This is evidence of the racial disparities in the War on Drug. The War on Drugs has allowed minorities to become easier targets for law enforcement. The unequal treatment in sentencing between crack and powdered cocaine users is not justified. Crack is popular in black community and powdered cocaine is more commonly use by white. Law enforcement uses the federal law, which impact lower minority people who are able to afford

Drug trafficking, crack availability, and the Federal Anti-Drug Abuse Act led to mandatory minimum prison for dealers that will be sentenced. Originally, the sentencing for crack versus cocaine was “100:1” (Blumstein & Jonsson-federal sentencing reporter), meaning the amount of crack compared to the amount of powdered cocaine needed to set up a required minimum prison sentence.

cocaine offenses under the 100-to-1, crack to cocaine trigger were African American (Written 4). In 2010 Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA) that reduced the crack to cocaine disparity from 100-to-1 to 18 grams of crack to 1 gram of cocaine triggering the mandatory minimum but they did not change mandatory minimum sentencing (Written 4). Blacks and whites use marijuana at similar rates however blacks are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession, in some counties blacks are 10, 15 or even 30 more times more likely to be arrested (Written 6).

In 2010, the Obama Administration passed into law The Fair Sentencing Act, which directly targeted the harshly different punishments for people caught in possession of crack versus people caught in possession of cocaine and effectively overruled the punishments of each drug outlined in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Immediately, there was discussion regarding the purpose and effectiveness of this act versus the 1986 act. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, although it was eagerly pursued and supported by black communities, has ultimately been accused of being indirectly, or purposefully, discriminatory towards African Americans. This law established shockingly different punishments for users of crack versus users of cocaine. As is commonly known and has been proven statistically, African Americans are more likely to consume crack than cocaine and are more likely to consume crack than any other race would.

I agree that people found with personal use amounts of cocaine or methamphetamines should be prosecuted and if they have a good behavior in prison, the sentence should be less than or suspended if they agree to undergo drug rehabilitation. This may be a way to reduce the worldwide epidemic of cocaine and methamphetamines among addicts. If there are no strict laws against drug abuse, individuals will continue using drugs and the number of violence and crime will increase. Furthermore, Cocaine is very harmful to the body, since it is made of toxic chemicals, which adversely affects the brain. If the government does nothing about drug possession, individuals will continue hurting their bodies, as well as those around them.

More specifically, crack is crystallized freebase cocaine. Freebasing is where cocaine hydrochloride is mixed with ammonium hyroxide ether. This solution is then heated, the ether evaporated, and leaves freebase cocaine which is then smokes (Zonderman and Shader, 65). This process is called "cooking". The crack residue is a solid crystalline substance that is broken into chips or pieces resembling gravel (Edwards, 76).

Furthermore, there are various state laws that play an important role in reducing cocaine availability and use. For instance, the congress mandated a creation of bi-partisan, presidentially appointed commission to develop model state drug legislation in 1988. This saw the commission develop forty-four exemplary drug laws. These laws regulate illegal drug use in this case cocaine and put strict measures on the disciplinary actions that should be taken once an individual is caught taking such illegal

This outburst of intellectual, full of informational facts, five page , double spaced paper will blow your mind. Filling you with knowledge and letting go of the curious questions you have in regards to the powder world of cocaine addiction. Solving the crack it has put on society and the world (pun intended).

Under the Controlled Substance Act Cocaine is a Schedule II or it has a greater potential for abuse and it has a limited use medically.