In years past, someone convicted in federal court of possessing crack cocaine would receive the same sentence as someone who possessed 100 times more powder cocaine (also known as coke). You might wonder what the difference is between crack and coke to justify this 100-to-1 ratio, but as it turns out, there's no significant chemical difference between them: They're both forms of cocaine. The huge difference in federal sentencing laws for possession of each form of the same drug had more to do with wrong information and political pressure than with public safety and health. A 2010 federal law fixed some, though not all, of the sentencing differences for crack and cocaine, and a 2018 law took those changes further.
Crack is made by dissolving powder cocaine (which comes from coca leaves) and baking soda in boiling water and then cutting the resulting paste into small "rocks" after it dries. The rocks are usually sold in single doses to users who smoke them. Because of the inexpensive additive (baking soda), a rock of crack cocaine is cheaper than a similar "dose" of powder cocaine. But the two forms of the drug are chemically the same and affect the user in the same physical and psychological ways. A person smoking crack cocaine (as compared to snorting or injecting powder cocaine) experiences a faster, more intense high simply because smoke in the lungs affects the brain more quickly than other methods of ingestion.
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The harsh sentences for crack came after reports in the mid-80s that the United States was experiencing a "crack epidemic." News outlets reported that crack was more potent, more addictive, and more likely to lead to violence than powder cocaine or other drugs. For example, a 1986 Newsweek article quoted a drug expert who said crack was "the most addictive drug known to man." But within four years, that magazine, and most other media outlets, academics, and law enforcement agencies abandoned that view because no real evidence supported it.
While crack was a hot topic in the news in 1986, Congress held hearings to address the so-called crack epidemic. At the hearings, several senators recited the unscientific (and later discredited) claims about the heightened dangers of crack and its impact on urban communities. The result was the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which severely penalized crack cocaine offenses, and was arguably one of the most unjustified sentencing schemes ever created in the United States.
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 created a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for possession of five grams (or just a few rocks) of crack cocaine. (21 U.S.C. 841 (2006).) "Mandatory minimum" means just what it says: A conviction for possessing five grams of crack required at least five years in federal prison, even if it was the person's first offense. By contrast, under the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, people arrested for powder cocaine had to possess 100 times more than that (500 grams, or over a pound) to face a five-year mandatory minimum. This 100-to-1 ratio was not based on evidence: During the debate on the Act, Congress simply considered various arbitrary ratios (including 20-to-1) and settled on the 100-to-1 ratio, with no evidence to support that figure.
Crack cocaine's lower price, ease of production, and manner of distribution (small quantities sold to individuals for personal use) made it widely accessible in poor, urban communities, which included many Black communities. Although white people also used crack, police efforts to control crack focused mainly on urban Black communities, in part because it was easier; drug deals in those communities usually happened in public on the street, not in private residences as in white communities. They also happened more often, because, unlike people who have the money to stock up on their drug supply, lower-income people can afford only one dose at a time, and each drug deal carries a risk of arrest. The increase in arrests of Black people and the increase in sentences for crack meant that Black people went to prison for cocaine offenses far more often and much longer than white people, even though white people used cocaine (both powder and crack) more than Black people did.
Many legislators who had voted for the Anti-Drug Abuse Act became concerned that most defendants convicted of crack possession were Black, while most defendants in powder cocaine possession cases were white or Latino. And the media (along with the general public) began to note the lack of scientific evidence justifying the vastly different treatment of the two forms of the same drug. Although it took a long time, Congress finally passed legislation in 2010 to address the problem.
The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 eliminated the five-year mandatory minimum for possession of five grams of crack, and increased the amount required to trigger mandatory sentencing. (21 U.S.C. 841, 844.) The Act changed the ratio of crack to powder cocaine from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1, for purposes of imposing the same sentence for possession of each drug. So, the federal law still imposes a harsher sentence for crack than for coke, but the difference is now less severe.
On the state level, a minority of the states also treated crack and cocaine differently for purposes of sentencing. After the Fair Sentencing Act, some of these states changed that practice. For example, in 2014, California passed the California Fair Sentencing Act, which eliminated the sentencing differences for crack and powder cocaine in state cases.
Rivera testified that the defendant "sent" an unknown man "to retrieve that amount of crack cocaine"; the man left the apartment and after returning gave the defendant "the crack cocaine that [Rivera] had ordered," which Rivera purchased from the defendant for $120 in prerecorded police "buy money." The entire transaction took approximately five minutes. On leaving the apartment, Rivera testified that he gave "the eight ball of crack cocaine" to an "evidence officer," who took the material to a State police crime laboratory to be analyzed.
The task force's investigation of narcotics distribution at 284 Dwight Street Extension was then temporarily suspended because of another law enforcement operation in the area. On October 18, 2005, Rivera again returned in an undercover capacity to apartment 4L. He was met on the fourth-floor porch outside the apartment by the same unknown man who had allowed him into the apartment on July 7, 2005. When Rivera said that he wanted to purchase crack cocaine, the defendant came out of the apartment onto the porch where Rivera asked for an "eight ball of crack." The defendant only had "sixteenths," which, Rivera testified, were "smaller amounts of crack." The defendant, in Spanish, "called down" to "Munchy," later identified as Juan Rebollo, and "summonsed him up to bring an eight ball of crack." When Rebollo came to the fourth floor, the defendant invited Rivera
into the apartment, where the defendant told Rebollo, "Go ahead and sell [Rivera] the crack." On cross-examination, Rivera testified that the defendant's "exact words" to Rebollo were, "Sell to him." Rivera testified that he then purchased "an eight ball of crack cocaine" from Rebollo for $120 in marked police "buy money," and then followed the same procedure he had used on July 7 for securing and analyzing the materials.
2. The trial. Through Trooper Rivera, the prosecutor introduced in evidence the substances that Rivera purchased on July 7 and October 18, as well as corresponding drug certificates attesting that each substance contained cocaine. Through Trooper Juan Colon, another member of the task force, the Commonwealth introduced in evidence a small bag of white powder recovered on October 20 from apartment 4L, and a corresponding drug certificate attesting that the substance was cocaine. Defense counsel did not object to the admission of any of the alleged narcotics or the drug certificates, [Note 6] nor did he object to the Commonwealth's characterization of the substances as "drugs" or "crack cocaine" in the prosecutor's questions. In his closing argument, defense
In addition, the defendant testified that he had not witnessed the transaction between Trooper Rivera and Juan Rebollo on October 18, 2005. Rebollo was called by the defense and questioned about the October 18 transaction. He largely confirmed the defendant's testimony that the defendant was not involved in the October 18 drug deal. On cross-examination by the Commonwealth, Rebollo admitted that in connection with a plea bargain on charges related to the October 18 transaction, he had admitted under oath to the truth of facts read into the record that he, Rebollo, had been instructed by the defendant to sell crack cocaine to Rivera. Rebollo explained that the statement of facts he swore to was not correct, and that he vouched for its truth only because "I thought that the deal they were offering me was a deal that was convenient for me . . . ."
The principal witness for the prosecution, Trooper Rivera, testified in general terms that he had "quite a bit of training having to do with identifying, tracking, and monitoring narcotics operations," that he was "familiar with crack cocaine," as well as "the terminology used by dealers and users regarding purchasing and selling crack cocaine on the streets of Springfield," and that he had previously made hundreds of undercover purchases of crack cocaine. [Note 16] Rivera also testified that, based on his "training and experience," the substance in the bag he purchased on July 7, 2005, was "consistent with crack cocaine." [Note 17] However, when
In the apartment, he spoke to Flaco, whom he later identified as the defendant. He told the defendant that he wanted to buy an "eight ball" of cocaine. [Note Cordy-3] The defendant then sent another individual who was present in the apartment to retrieve a clear plastic bag containing a substance that the officer observed was "consistent with crack cocaine." The defendant then handed the bag to the officer who, in turn, gave the defendant $120. The officer asked to leave the apartment through the front door. That door was also observed to be barricaded, and another man stood in the hallway just outside. 2ff7e9595c
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