President Signs Cocaine Disparity Law

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Washington - President Obama signed a law today designed to change the way that crack and powder cocaine are handled in court

The Fair Sentencing Act is "a bipartisan bill to help right a longstanding wrong by narrowing sentencing disparities between those convicted of crack cocaine and powder cocaine," Obama said last week in a speech to the National Urban League. "It's the right thing to do."

The law targets what the Drug Policy Alliance calls the problem of the 100-to-1 ratio.

Previously, a person caught with five grams of crack cocaine would receive a mandatory sentence of five years -- that same person would have to possess at least 500 grams of powder cocaine to earn the same sentence. This discrepancy tended to fall harder on African-Americans, who are charged more often with crimes involving crack cocaine.

"By signing this reform into law President Obama will save taxpayer money, reduce racial disparities, and




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• Crack
• Disparity
• cocaine
• white
• black
• sentencing