Racial & Social Equality are tested by the unfair treatment of illicit drugs

By Antonia Forbes

Meet James White. James is an up and coming executive at Pompous & Snooterson advertising agency. He is highly regarded socially around the office so no one pays any attention to his extra long lunches. James walks briskly a few blocks down to his favorite upscale dining spot and without any assistance finds his reserved booth and sits. He orders, cuts his powder and takes a long inhale through one nostril. James is a cocaine user. He will finish lunch late as usual and scurry back to his corner office passing Joe, the new temp, without a glance.

Meet Joe Black. Joe is starting his first day at his third job in a month. He’s in the mailroom (no drug test required) and is about to leave for his lunch break. He makes haste towards the door and scampers from the business district to the urine stained streets fifteen blocks away. He meets his comrade Jacky Blue, makes a hasty transaction and they both head into the apartment building behind them. It’s condemned- or it should be, and the paint peels as they sit on the threadbare couch and fill the pipe. Lighter at the end Joe takes a long inhale through his lips. He is a crack cocaine user. He will rush back to his new building without a clue that his superior shares an ache for the more refined twin sister of his crystalline love.

The girls, Crack and Cocaine are both byproducts of the South American plant Erythroxylon coca with “Crack” being labeled after the cracking sound it makes when it is burnt. Both are extremely potent and habit forming stimulants. Both result in feelings of immeasurable euphoria and when the caught in possession of a citizen results in law enforcement involvement. However there is a strong social and some may say racial difference in the users and punishment they receive.

James and Joe are obviously from varying ends of the socioeconomic pool. James is affluent making him more likely to purchase and use cocaine because of its higher sale value and luxurious aftertaste. Because crack cocaine is relatively cheaper to produce and purchase, Joe is more likely to fall under her girl next door guise. The girl next door (crack) does have a quicker high however: according to streetdrugs.org “because crack is smoked, the user experiences a high in less than 10 seconds. This rather immediate and euphoric effect is one of the reasons that crack became enormously popular in the mid 1980s”, - putting Joe at the forefront of the race.

Race, now there’s an interesting term. “Historically, the majority of crack cocaine offenders are black; powder cocaine offenders are now predominantly Hispanic. In 2006, African-Americans accounted for 82 percent of crack cocaine-related arrests, while white and Hispanic offenders accounted for 72 percent of powder cocaine-related arrests.” according to a report compiled by U.S News and World Report library staff.

The racial makeup of crack cocaine users would not be incredibly significant if there didn’t exist an alarming disproportion in the U.S law between sentencing for crack possession and sentencing for powdered cocaine possession. Currently, the penalty of a five year prison sentence is doled out for possession of five grams of crack cocaine. The same amount needed of powdered cocaine to garner that kind of punishment: 500 grams.

Many conspiracy theories have arisen alluding to the fact that crack cocaine was introduced to the African American and lower middle class population because of it’s extremely addictive and destructive properties as a way to “keep them down.” You can decide what’s possible and what’s paranoia. However, as new legislature (the Fairness in Cocaine Sentencing Act, or HR3245) is being passed to eradicate the disparity between Crack cocaine and powdered cocaine charges a closer look at other facets of this “equal” society may be necessary.

On September 14th, Thesentencingproject.org published a quote about new attention being brought to the inequality of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. “The Crack the Disparity Coalition has produced a short documentary that hopes to propel movement to completely eliminate the federal crack cocaine sentencing disparity -- once and for all. The film, "Crack the Disparity: It's Not Fair. It's Not Working.," was directed by Howard University film professor Alonzo Crawford and highlights the history of the legislation in Congress, and its effect on low-income and African-American communities”.

Interested people in the Washington D.C area can check out the film on September 27th at the infamous Busboys and Poets restaurant. It will be followed by a panel discussion with social and societal standouts.