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Essay On Crack Cocaine On African Americans

820 Words4 Pages

Life for African Americans in the 1960s was rough. Racial tensions were high because the black communities faced significantly lower incomes, more unemployment, and social isolation compared to white Americans. Events like the race riots only served to portray the anger of the African American community towards the injustices they faced. One of these injustices was the harsher punishments placed on possession of crack cocaine compared to the ones placed on the powder version of this substance. Even though the two drugs are both cocaine and act the same way on the human body, crack was vilified for no apparent reason, other than the fact that it was predominantly used by the black community. The chemical formula that makes up powder cocaine …show more content…

This amendment was signed by President Ronald Reagan, the act had created a racial dispute because of the charges pressed for possession of crack cocaine. For example, if the offender has fifty grams of crack cocaine he/she will have a minimum sentence of ten years in prison; the same charges are pressed if the offender has five kilograms of powdered cocaine. This had created the one-hundred to one ratio where you need one-hundred times more the amount of powdered cocaine to receive the same punishment for crack cocaine. Congress tried to justify this ratio by underlining the social harms associated with crack cocaine. This idea was introduced due the fact that crack cocaine sells more cheaply on the street, can be smoked, and gives a shorter but more intense “high”. Recently as of August 3rd, 2010, Congress had passed the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 which was signed by President Barack Obama, the act reduced the sentencing disparity from one-hundred to one into eighteen to one. This hadn’t resolved the issue that minorities are still getting more punishable sentences because it still isn’t the one to one ratio it should

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