The Providence Journal, 16 Aug 2010 – It took time, but Congress has finally tightened the egregious sentencing gap between crimes involving crack cocaine and those linked to the powder form. In legislation signed by President Obama Aug. 3 – a disparity that had been 100 to 1 was trimmed to 18 to 1. Under previous law, a person charged in federal court with possessing 5 grams of crack faced a mandatory minimum of five years in jail. But someone with the powder form had to possess 500 grams to incur the same penalty. Along with narrowing this gap, the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 makes several improvements. The mandatory minimum sentence for first-time simple possession is gone. This should help bolster an important distinction between users (especially casual or first-time offenders) and dealers. The strongest punishment should be focused on the latter. Now, it will take 28 grams of crack cocaine, an amount a dealer might carry, to trigger a five-year sentence.
posted on August 17, 2010 by
