Crack cocaine is made by heating cocaine and mixing it with baking soda and water until it forms a hard substance. These rocks are broken down into small quantities and sold on the street. Approximately 2/3 of all crack users are white, but according to the United States Sentencing Commission, in 1994, 84 percent of all defendants convicted of crack possession were black.

Like other forms of cocaine, crack is highly addictive. But because it is packaged into small units, each dose is relatively inexpensive, and once it hit the streets in the early 80's, it spread rapidly. Congressional leaders who already felt that the threat of a long prison term was the best way to drug control responded to this high-profile issue by passing mandatory sentences for crack possession in 1986 and 1988. Under these laws, anyone possessing more than five grams of crack would be sentenced to at least five years in federal prison. The sentences were substantially greater than for possession of cocaine: under the law, an offender who received a five year mandatory minimum for possession of five grams of crack would have to be caught with 500 grams of pure cocaine to receive the same mandatory sentence.

Crack laws have been challenged on several levels as "cruel and unusual" and racially biased. In 1997 the U.S. Court of Appeals found that though about 80 percent of those imprisoned under the mandatory sentence for crack use were African-American, the law was constitutional because it was not passed with any intent to discriminate. The Senate is currently considering legislation by Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.) which would increase the amount of crack requiring a mandatory minimum from 5 to 50 grams.

On One Hand...

The extraordinarily harsh sentences handed out to convicted crack abusers are necessary to deter use of this particularly dangerous drug. The effects of crack are particularly devastating - the drug is powerful, addictive, and causes permanent brain damage in its users, who often become violent and irrational when using the drug. In many poorer communities, it has torn apart the social structure and become an avenue for lifelong addiction. Drug arrests in the U.S. have tripled since the imposition of mandatory minimums for crack cocaine.

On the Other Hand...

Long sentences mandated for crack cocaine are discriminatory and must be reduced. The harsher penalties for crack use fall almost exclusively on minority - especially black - communities in low-income areas. Crack is a tragedy for these communities. Mandatory minimums for crack have contributed heavily to the 300 percent increase in prison population since 1980. Such long sentencing breeds violence - as first-timers are locked up for long periods in violent prisons. And the sentences are unfair, since - as a United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) report critical of crack laws notes - crack and cocaine are roughly equivalent in physiological and psychological effects.

• One probation officer noted that under current drug laws, a defendant who sells 100 grams of pure powder cocaine will receive a lesser sentence than a defendant who sells 89.4 grams of crack cocaine, despite the fact that 100 grams of pure powder cocaine could easily be converted to 89.4 grams of crack cocaine.

• Due to its easy marketability, convenient route of administration, simple manufacture, low cost, powerful addictiveness, and social destructiveness, many consider crack cocaine a much more dangerous drug than powder.

• The 100:1 quantity ratio between powder cocaine and crack cocaine means that someone with one unit of crack will be treated as if he had 100 units of cocaine.

• The ACLU cites medical opinion stating that: 1) both forms of cocaine have the same effect on the body and temperament; 2) only the administration methods of the two forms of cocaine differ; and 3) no method of administration is more addictive than the other.

• Cocaine powder is derived from coca paste, which is in turn derived from the leaves of the coca plant. Crack cocaine is made by taking cocaine powder and cooking it with baking soda and water until it forms a hard substance. These rocks can then be broken into pieces and sold in small quantities. Each gram of powder produces approximately .89 grams of crack.

• In 1990, a poll commissioned by President George Bush found that in the ghettos, 90 percent of the children interviewed stated that they wouldn't use drugs because "they're illegal".

• Russia has drastically reduced sentences for drug use; the population of addicts has risen accordingly from 110,000 in 1980 to over 7 million, according to the Cato Institute.

• Roger Clinton, the President's brother, was arrested for selling cocaine in 1984. If he had sold crack instead of cocaine, he would have been incarcerated for 10 years, at an annual cost to the taxpayer of $23,000.