Congress Cuts Sentencing Disparity Between Crack Cocaine and Powder, but How Similar Are the Drugs?

(July 28) -- On Wednesday, the U.S. Congress took the somewhat unusual step of passing legislation to actually make the federal drug laws less severe.

Before the new guidelines, a person arrested for possession of 5 grams or more of crack cocaine received an automatic five-year prison sentence. If signed by the president, the new law will increase the amount of crack that triggers the same five-year prison sentence to 28 grams.

By comparison, however, a five-year minimum mandatory sentence is only applied to those caught in possession of 500 grams or more of powdered cocaine.

Congress' move is being greeted with faint, backhanded praise by anti-drug war activists, libertarians and pretty much all of those who found the previous laws to be racist, since crack convictions have long been disproportionately applied to poor and minority users. (As Grandmaster Flash put it in his 1983 hit single "White Lines: Don't Do It": "A street kid gets arrested, gonna do some time/ He got out three years from now just to commit more crime/ A businessman is caught with 24 kilos/ He's out on bail and out of jail/ And that's the way it goes/ Raah!")

"ANY change in a positive direction takes a ridiculous amount of work and struggle," responded David Dayen on Firedoglake. "This is a small step, but it's a step in the right direction."

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder also released a statement in support of the measure. "The bill greatly reduces the unwarranted disparity in sentences for crack and powder cocaine offenses," Holder said, "and will go a long way toward ensuring that our sentencing laws are tough, consistent, and fair."

The president still has to sign the Fair Sentencing Act, but that shouldn't pose a problem, as he has repeatedly expressed his support for more equitable sentencing before and since taking office.

So with passage of the new bill seemingly imminent, Surge Desk clarifies just what the difference is between crack cocaine and its powdery sibling:

Chemistry

"The chemical formula of cocaine is C17H21NO4," notes How Stuff Works. "The snorted form, cocaine powder, is made by dissolving coca paste from the coca leaves in a mixture of hydrochloric acid and water. Potassium salt is added to the mixture to separate out undesired substances to be removed. Ammonia is then added to the remaining solution, and the solid powder cocaine separates out.

"To make crack, powder cocaine is dissolved in a mixture of water and either ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). The mixture is boiled to separate out the solid, and then it's cooled. The solid is then dried and cut up into small nuggets, or 'rocks.' "

Appearance

According to the U.S. Justice Department: "Cocaine is white and looks like a crystalline powder. Cornstarch, crushed or powdered vitamin substances, sugar, and flour are often mixed with cocaine to make the drug less strong. This is called 'cutting' the drug. Crack cocaine, on the other hand, looks like small (sometimes pink) rocks. "

Price

As of 2009, the average street price for a gram of pure cocaine in the U.S. was said to be between $80 and $100. The average 2009 price for a rock of crack cocaine is $10 to $25, observes Random Facts.

Delivery

As eMedicineHealth writes: "With snorting, the usual ritual is to place a line of coke, about 0.3 cm wide by 2.5 cm long, on a smooth surface. The finely divided powder is then snorted (inhaled quickly) into a nostril through a plastic or glass straw or a rolled currency bill. This ritual is usually repeated within a few minutes using the other nostril. Special spoons and other paraphernalia are available for snorting cocaine."

Compare that to crack, which "has a lower melting point (95C) than cocaine HCl and so it can be smoked. This is usually done through a pipe, though some people flake crack in to spliffs [hand-rolled tobacco cigarettes] and smoke it this way. As crack is not water soluble it cannot be snorted or injected. In order to inject it, some users will acidify crack cocaine, turning it back in to water-soluble salt," explains pro-drug site KFx.

Time

"Cocaine takes nearly 15 minutes to interact with the body's system and produce the effects it is used for," writes DifferenceBetween.net, "while crack tends to be a nearly instantaneous hit at 15 seconds."

"The high from snorting may last 15 to 30 minutes, while that from smoking crack cocaine may last 5 to 10 minutes," adds DrugFree.org.

Effects

"Physiological effects of cocaine include constricted peripheral blood vessels, dilated pupils, and increased blood pressure and heart rate," reports the Justice Department Office of Diversion Control. "Cocaine also produces restlessness, irritability, and anxiety in some users. High doses of cocaine or prolonged use can cause paranoia."

Crack produces similar but stronger effects than powder cocaine. As one user quoted by eMedicineHealth stated: "Snorting coke is like driving 50 miles per hour. Smoking crack is like driving 150 miles per hour without brakes!"

Number and Demographics of Users

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration notes that "of the 1.9 million substance abuse treatment admissions reported to SAMHSA's 2002 Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS), 13% reported cocaine as their primary substance of abuse. Of these treatment admissions with primary cocaine abuse, 73% reported smoking cocaine and 27% reported other routes of administration."

The latest National Survey on Drug Use & Health report to differentiate by demographic and drug type information, circa 2003, states that "Asians had the lowest rate of past year crack cocaine use (0.1 percent) compared with other racial/ethnic groups. Blacks (1.6 percent), American Indians or Alaska Natives (1.3 percent), Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders (1.2 percent), and persons who identified themselves with two or more non-Hispanic races (1.5 percent) had higher rates of past year crack cocaine use than whites (0.5 percent) and Hispanics or Latinos (0.5 percent)."

As the U.N. clarifies in the 2010 World Drugs Report: "The highest prevalence of cocaine use remains in North America, at 2% of the adult population aged 15 to 64. In the United States, many indicators show a downward trend in cocaine use over the past years, which mirrors a decreasing trend in cocaine production in Colombia, the source country of the cocaine reaching the United States, as well as increased difficulties faced by the Mexican drug cartels to have cocaine shipped from Colombia via Mexico into the United States. Data from 2008 confirm the decreasing trend both in the adult and young populations."

Arrests

2005 is the latest data set available online that differentiates crack cocaine and powdered cocaine arrests. In 2005, the Drug Enforcement Administration reported 29,005 arrests.

According to the 2005 Compendium of Federal Justice Statistics: "Suspects arrested for cocaine powder and crack cocaine accounted for 42% of all suspects (29,886) arrested by the DEA in 2005. Twenty-eight percent of suspects were arrested for cocaine powder; 14% for crack cocaine. The remaining 58% of suspects were arrested for methamphetamine (22%), marijuana (20%), opiates (8%), and other drug-related offenses (9%).

"Hispanics constituted 44% of arrestees, followed by white (27%) and black (26%) suspects. Hispanics made up more than half of arrests for cocaine powder (56%). More than three-quarters (77%) of crack cocaine arrestees were black."

Overall Effects on Society

The National Drug Intelligence Center reports that "cocaine is the leading drug threat to society. Methamphetamine is the second leading drug threat, followed by marijuana, heroin, pharmaceutical drugs, and MDMA, respectively. ... National law enforcement and drug use surveys show that the adverse impact to the nation's communities, families, and individuals caused by the distribution and abuse of powder and crack cocaine exceeds that caused by all other drugs."