ipl-logo

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

Show More
Related
970 Words | 4 Pages

Much of the area in which progress has been seen, has been in informing the public in general to the issues of systemic racism inside the criminal justice stem. Through films like 13th conversations have sparked that bring attention to the issues. With the general public becoming informed we have seen pressure being placed on our government officials to create reforms to many of these policies that have been in place for so long. Some changes have been seen like a reduction in mandatory minimum sentences and the availability of drug treatment and other alternatives to becoming

Read More
614 Words | 3 Pages

For being such an advanced country, America’s biggest issue stays unresolved. That issue is its justice system. In the book Just Mercy, the author Bryan Stevenson writes, “We have to reform a system of criminal justice that continues to treat people better if they are rich and guilty than if they are poor and innocent.” The majority of prisoners in the U.S. are black, mentally ill, or poor. Minorities are treated harshly by the justice system in the United States because it’s built to benefit the rich, guilty, and white.

Read More
1115 Words | 5 Pages

During the 80s, a drug epidemic was considered the worst economic crisis. This war on drugs made even more families poorer and the rich richer. Doing so made colored people find alternative ways in making money. Shaka Senghor said, ‘’Your black with crack cocaine you’re going to prison for basically the rest life of your life, uhm and you are white you pretty much getting slapped on the wrist.

Read More
1107 Words | 5 Pages

Through the years, the world has made substantial progress towards ensuring equal treatment under law for all citizens. However, the cycle continues, as disparities within the justice decision making process is growing at each level of the criminal justice system. Although the drug policies and sentencing guidelines that are put into place by our legislators are said to be “race neutral,” they have actually shown to be pervasively biased, affecting both innocent as well as guilty minority citizens. There is no question that the most important stage of the criminal justice system is the sentencing phase. It is at this stage where prosecutors, along with law enforcement personnel, attempt to determine who will or will not be granted leniency

Read More
570 Words | 3 Pages

To support my claims I will be talking about incarceration, pullover rates & situations and police training in great detail. When it comes to the sentencing of convicted criminals, there are racial, ethnic and gender disparities. In 1984 the Sentencing Guidelines and Policy Statements of the Sentencing Reform Act, or short for SRA, was designed to eliminate sentencing disparities and states clearly that race, gender, ethnicity, and

Read More
159 Words | 1 Pages

The chemical makeup of Cocaine is (C17H21NO4). Cocaine is an addictive stimulant that affects key pleasure centers within the brain and causes heightened euphoria. The hydrochloride salt, which is a powdered form of cocaine, can be dissolved in water and injected or snorted. It is derived from the coca plant and is primarily found in Peru, Bolivia, and Columbia. Crack cocaine is the crystal form of cocaine.

Read More
343 Words | 2 Pages

Is it fair that an African American man is sentenced up to life in prison for possession of drugs when Brock Turner is sentenced to only 14 years, later to be reduced to six months for sexually assaulting an unconscious women. The judiciary system are believed to have a high african american incarceration rate as a result of discrimination. At a presidential debate on Martin Luther King Day, President Barack Obama said that “Blacks and whites are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates, and receive very different sentences… for the same crime.” Hillary Clinton said the “disgrace of a criminal-justice system that incarcerates so many more african americans proportionately than whites.”

Read More
194 Words | 1 Pages

To begin, “congress fell in love with mandatory minimums requiring anyone convicted of a given offense to receive a minimum penalty prescribed by legislation (Bazelon, 2).” For instance, if a person shoots someone in the leg, they are charged as if they killed that person. Oftentimes the minorities get more time than the whites. On the other hand, Alberto Gonzales reports that the mandatory minimum sentencing ensure tough and fair sentences for offenders and has nothing to do with race. People with too much power don’t know the differences between tough punishment and unfair punishment.

Read More
296 Words | 2 Pages

An example of criminal code violations in which it is apparent inequity in sentencing is the “war on drugs.” This so called war on drugs is a campaign to prohibit drugs, military aid, and military intervention, with the goal of reducing illegal drug trade. Since this war on drugs the nation has seen a dramatic increase in the number of people in prisons and jails for drugs offenses. In 1980, 40,000 people were either waiting trial or serving time for a drug related offense that number has increased to around 500,000 in today’s time (American Bar Association). The problem which arose with this drug war was the disproportionate law enforcement presence in African American communities.

Read More
1000 Words | 4 Pages

This law led to people being arrested crack being sentenced to much harsher punishments than those for cocaine. The people being for crack were predominately black and for cocaine predominately white. “Crack was largely a inner-city issue and crack was largely a suburban issue”(13th). After the war on drugs Bill Clinton became president, and pasted more to crack down harder on crime. One of them being mandatory minimums this didn’t let the judges decide the crimes.

Read More
784 Words | 4 Pages

A study conducted by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services undertaking claims of sentencing disparities studies the felony sentencing outcomes particularly in New York courts between the years 1990 and 1992. Astonishingly, the study concluded that approximately one-third of minorities sentenced to prison would have received a shorter sentence with the possibility of a non-incarcerative penalty if they had been treated similarly to their white counterparts. Consequently, other sentencing data is consistent with the results of this study’s findings. On a national scale, black males specifically, who were convicted of drug felonies in state courts 52 percent of the time, while white males typically receive prison sentencing approximately 34 percent of the time. In addition, these figures are not constrained to gender given the similar ratio among black and white women as well.

Read More
629 Words | 3 Pages

Teen tend to use drugs in their early to late teen years. Teens tend to start off by smoking marijuana. Then after getting bored of using the drug they use harder drugs like cocaine and heroin. Marijuana, Heroin and Cocaine are the top three drugs used in Chicago. Teens do realize what they are doing to themselves until the damage is already done.

Read More
983 Words | 4 Pages

Cocaine is a drug that is commonly known as coke. It is used by inhaling into the body as smoke, by injecting into the veins, by rubbing it into their gums, or by snorting its powder. Cocaine is made from coca leaves that were first extracted by a German chemist Friedrich Gaedcke in 1855. Cocaine was broadly promoted for to cure depression sexual impotence when an Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud experimented on himself. He used cocaine regularly and kept promoting to everyone in his surroundings without knowing the consequences of the danger of cocaine.

Read More
322 Words | 2 Pages

When I say this, listen well, because this may save your life. Cocaine (also known as coke, snow, and many other street terms), is a very dangerous and addictive drug. You may think you can just “try” it one time and to “see” what it’s like, but that is not the

Read More
2333 Words | 10 Pages

Our government needs to focus on one of the issues most in need of attention in America today, which is the racial discrimination within the entire criminal justice system. Racial discrimination is seen in many police departments and in the court systems, these are the most visible sign of racial bias in America. The racially bias American judicial system has made it to where African American men, constitute up the majority of prisons and jail population. African American men are also more likely to be imprisoned than white men for the same crimes. Racial inequality is a serious problem that is growing every day.

Read More

More about Essay On Crack Cocaine On African Americans

Related Topics

Open Document