A well-researched story by federal court reporter Claire Cooper in today's San Francisco Chronicle reports on the political and legislative momentum towards ending the crack-powder cocaine disparity and the prosecutions of crack offenses involving small quantities of crack:
the Obama administration wants the crack/powder disparity eliminated. In the last session of Congress, then-Sen. Barack Obama co-sponsored a bill introduced by then-Sen. Joe Biden to do just that.
The same bill is on the table again. HR 265, introduced in the House by Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee, would increase federal penalties for big-time trafficking while reducing them for possession or dealing in trivial quantities of crack - offenses that should be left to state prosecutors or public health officials.
Here's hoping the end is near!
Table of fed crack cocaine cases below, which lists the median weight of a crack cocaine case in Sacramento in 2006 as 86.5 grams and notes that there were more federal crack cases in Sacramento than in Los Angeles:
Busts by the numbers
Median drug weights for federal crack cocaine cases
Nationwide 51 grams (1.8 oz.) 4,262 cases Los Angeles 120 grams 27 cases Sacramento 86.5 grams 35 cases Chicago 76.3 grams 79 cases New York 56.3 grams 78 cases Seattle 45.7 grams 30 cases San Francisco 30.2 grams 18 cases Miami 30.2 grams 104 cases Note: San Diego was not included because there was only one case (33 grams)
Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, based on 2006 data