Anti Drug Abuse Act Research Paper

In 1986 Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act. This act established a mandatory sentence of five years for 500 grams of powder cocaine versus five grams of crack cocaine (Vagins, McCurdy). Why the same sentence for basically the same drug but vastly different quantities? The answer lies deep in a racial argument. Cocaine is more expensive and therefore sought by higher-class white individuals, while crack cocaine is cheap and utilized by the poorer class, mainly African Americans. Compile that with he fact that a higher percentage white offenders are acquitted or not even prosecuted, while African Americans are convicted and sentenced. This makes our jails full of African American offenders while white Americans walk free after a drug possession. The substances are same in a different form. This has had a terrible effect on African Americans. In just four years after establishing this the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, the average sentence for African Americans was 38% higher than white Americans. The main reasons for this were that crack was thought to be far worse than powder cocaine. The lawmakers felt they were planning for a crack epidemic due to its cheap and easy manufacture. Because of this the law was passed quickly …show more content…
This article states the data used to say that crack is worse than cocaine have been disproven. The law was first put into effect to catch big drug traffickers yet the people behind bars were

there for small amounts of crack cocaine or assisting with the small sale or pick up. According to Vagnis and McCurdy (2006) the report outlines the justifications for changing the crack cocaine penalties:
“The quantities of crack cocaine that trigger federal prosecution and sentencing must be equalized with and increased to the current levels of powder cocaine.

Federal prosecutions must be properly focused on the high-level traffickers of both crack and powder