Numbers Game in War on Drugs : Congress, wary of seeming ‘soft,’ considers an extreme step against cocaine

Congress will compound its recent failure of nerve on drug sentencing if it equalizes the penalties for crack and powder cocaine possession at the small amount now mandated for crack.

Exploding drug use has unquestionably produced a dismal array of problems, including crime, broken families and drug-addicted babies--and an array of would-be solutions. The tough mandatory minimum prison terms that Congress and the U.S. Sentencing Commission set for drug crimes signal the federal government’s strong opposition to even casual use or sale. States too have a wide body of anti-drug laws. Less influential in today’s political climate are the experts who see treatment and prevention as more effective than harsh punishment in reducing drug abuse.

Congress has aggressively pressed the war on drugs by writing certain presumptions into law. Mandatory minimum prison terms--with no parole--would, supporters believe, deter use and preclude inconsistent sentences. Federal law also regards crack cocaine as a far more serious problem than powder cocaine. Conviction for possession or sale of five or more grams of crack, for example, automatically carries a prison sentence of five years, while it takes 500 grams of powder cocaine to trigger the same sentence. The disparity is based on the addictive nature of crack and the presumption that this form of the drug is entwined with violence.

The consequences of these presumptions now populate our courts and prisons. One in five federal inmates is a low-level drug criminal with no record of violence. Nearly 90% of federal crack defendants are black. A chorus of judges and politicians have called for more sentencing discretion and an end to the crack/powder disparity. But Congress has disagreed, killing a proposal that would have ended the disparity by raising the gram threshold for crack cocaine to the level of powder. Last week, President Clinton supported that decision.

Now the Senate has before it a bill to end the disparity by lowering the threshold for powder cocaine to that for crack. Five grams of either could send someone to federal prison. This measure would eliminate the disparity while insulating lawmakers from soft-on-crime charges. But at what cost? More crowded prisons and more lives spent behind bars. Congress should be reasonable and fair. Equalize the levels at some point that provides a deterrent yet avoids Draconian punishment.