On July 28, 2010, the House of Representatives passed the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, the legislation that will help alleviate the crack-powder cocaine disparity. The legislature reduced the disparity from 100:1 to roughly 18:1, making the sentence for distribution of a gram of crack roughly the same sentence as the distribution of 18 grams of powder. Federal drug sentences for possession and sale are based on the weight of the controlled substance. For over 20 years, possession of 5 grams of cocaine base (crack cocaine), without intent to distribute, has triggered the same mandatory 5-year sentence as distribution of 500 grams of powder cocaine. The new legislation eliminates the mandatory minimum, so that a powder cocaine defendant no longer has to possess or sell 100 times the amount of cocaine to receive the same sentence as a crack cocaine defendant. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 should help reduce the overrepresentation of minorities in the federal prison system, as powder cocaine distributors, who are mostly Caucasians, drew relatively reasonable sentences while crack dealers, who are mostly minorities, stayed in prison longer for what is a chemically identical form of the same drug.
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