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Fair Sentencing Act signed into law
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After 25 years of blatantly unfair mandatory sentencing requirements, commonsense has finally prevailed. Somewhat. President Obama has signed into law the Fair Sentencing Act:
The legislation was a compromise reached by Democrats and Republicans who agreed that the old law imposed unduly harsh sentences for crack violations, which effected minorities in particular, compared with powder cocaine violations. The final bill was supported unanimously in the Senate and on a voice vote in the House, a rare moment where the parties have come together during Mr. Obama’s presidency.
Under the old law, a person caught with five grams of crack received a mandatory sentence of five years in prison, while a cocaine user had to have 500 grams to merit the same term. The new law reduces the 100-to-1 disparity to 18-to-1. A crack defendant would have to have 28 grams to trigger the five-year mandatory minimum sentence, or roughly the amount that authorities presume would indicate a dealer rather than a casual user.
Obama Signs Law Narrowing Cocaine Sentencing Disparities - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com
It's encouraging to see an actual bi-partisan consensus on this ... because I certainly wouldn't have been surprised to see members of either party do some "tough on crime" grandstanding on it since it's an election year. We'll see if Congress follows-up and applies the new sentences retroactively. Going from a 100-to-1 disparity to an 18-to-1 disparity is definitely a significant improvement ... though there's no logical reason to have a sentencing disparity at all. But I'll try not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good on this one. 
OAW
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Games Meister  Join Date: Aug 2009
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Take that, Whitney Houston.
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Now all the politicians have to do to be "tough on crime" is to increase powder coke sentences by 1800%, though the signing party afterwards might be a bit more, subdued...
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Originally Posted by Warren Pease 
Now all the politicians have to do to be "tough on crime" is to increase powder coke sentences by 1800%, though the signing party afterwards might be a bit more, subdued...
Well I certainly won't be holding my breath for that one. Not as long as powder coke is the drug of choice for the affluent in this country. 
OAW
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