Judge’s Challenge To Unequal
Drug Penalties Is At High Court

Leonard E. Colvin
Chief Reporter
New Journal & Guide
  
       The U.S. Supreme Court opened its  2007 term this week and the nation’s high  court will take up a variety of cases ranging from legality of requiring photo identifications at election polls, to the method to carrying out the death penalty, to the test of a citizen’s right to carry a weapon.
       The high court, which has been shifting right of center  and conveying a more conservative view, will begin a court session which could  be the most watched and contentious in recent times.

     
    One issue which being closely watched by Civil Rights activists is the disparity in the federal sentencing laws relative to possession, use and distribution of crack cocaine, the cheaper and highly addictive street drug of  the more expensive illegal powdered cocaine.
       Critics of the federal sentencing guidelines say that a  person caught with 5 grams of crack cocaine—equal to five Sweet ‘N Low packets—will get a mandatory minimum of five years in federal prison.
       But it takes 500 grams of powdered cocaine, equal to a one pound bag of sugar,  to get the same amount of time in the federal pen.
       The 21-year-old federal sentencing guidelines, devised as a result of the high rise in  crack cocaine sales on the nation’s urban streets,  have attributed  to the majority of  men and women who  have been sentenced to jail as a result of the nation’s War On Drugs.

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