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The cocaine sentencing disparity is one of the most notable and obvious manifestations of the racist impact of arcane drug laws in the US. The 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act created a 100 to 1 disparity between the amount of crack cocaine that triggers a federal mandatory minimum sentence versus powder cocaine. Five grams of crack mandated a five-year sentence — 500 grams of powder cocaine was required to trigger the same sentence. (Though an Asbury Park Press study found that Black usage of crack was only slightly higher than white usage, crack has been stereotypically associated with Black people while powder cocaine is thought of as a richer, whiter drug.)

The disparity has been diluted by Congress over the last decade — the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act reformed the disparity to be 18 to 1 instead of 100 to 1, and the 2018 First Step Act made the reform retroactive, allowing people incarcerated for crack offenses to apply for resentencing under the new law.

Now, a small group of lawmakers — a bipartisan one in the House, and two Democrats in the Senate — wants to do away with the disparity altogether and provide the opportunity for retroactive sentence reduction.

We would like to thank Vox for the content. Click HERE to view the original compressive article.