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<blockquote data-quote="Old Man Jingles" data-source="post: 3427542" data-attributes="member: 18222">I&#039;m watching &quot;<a href="http://www.pbs.org/show/black-america-mlk-and-still-i-rise/" target="_blank">Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise</a>&quot;.It does a good job of presenting the racial discrimination inherent in USA Drug Laws.Although I feel no personal shame for this, it is a shame.For instance, the disparity in mandatory sentences for &#039;crack&#039; versus &#039;powder cocaine&#039;.The chemical makeup is identical and the same urine test is used for both.Crack was used primarily by blacks and powder cocaine was used by whites.The same sentence (5 years mandatory) is in the law for powder cocaine for 100 times the amount for crack.Bill Clinton presided over the largest increase in federal and state prison inmates of any president in American history. He did not declare the war on crime or the war on drugs—those wars were declared before Reagan was elected and long before crack hit the streets—but he escalated them beyond what many conservatives had imagined possible. He supported the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity for crack vs. powder cocaine, which produced staggering racial injustice in sentencing and boosted funding for drug-law enforcement.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Old Man Jingles, post: 3427542, member: 18222"] I'm watching "[URL='http://www.pbs.org/show/black-america-mlk-and-still-i-rise/']Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise[/URL]". It does a good job of presenting the racial discrimination inherent in USA Drug Laws. Although I feel no personal shame for this, it is a shame. For instance, the disparity in mandatory sentences for 'crack' versus 'powder cocaine'. The chemical makeup is identical and the same urine test is used for both. Crack was used primarily by blacks and powder cocaine was used by whites. The same sentence (5 years mandatory) is in the law for powder cocaine for 100 times the amount for crack. Bill Clinton presided over the largest increase in federal and state prison inmates of any president in American history. He did not declare the war on crime or the war on drugs—those wars were declared before Reagan was elected and long before crack hit the streets—but he escalated them beyond what many conservatives had imagined possible. [B]He supported the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity for crack vs. powder cocaine, which produced staggering racial injustice in sentencing and boosted funding for drug-law enforcement.[/B] [/QUOTE]

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