In 1986, Reagan’s Anti-Drug Abuse Act’s “100 to 1” rule began requiring a five-year minimum sentence for 500 grams of powder cocaine, but for only five grams of crack. Why?
Instead of scientific evidence, the law was steeped in racial bias about perceived drug habits, treating “Black” crack cocaine as significantly worse than “white” powder. As a result, Black incarceration rates skyrocketed, and sentence lengths increased by 49%.
There’s more.
In 1993, 88.3% of people convicted of federal crack cocaine charges were Black, even though most crack users were white. Still, both Republicans and Democrats adopted the dangerously anti-Black “tough on drugs” stance.
But there's another drug epidemic they haven’t been so “tough” on.
In 2016, whites made up nearly 80% of deaths from opioid overdoses. And this time, the federal government treated the opioid epidemic as the public health emergency that it is. The "War” on drugs was merely a war on us.
Mass incarceration has destroyed our families, lives, and communities for decades. Legislation like this is why it's crucial that we actively fight for a both a prison-free society and laws that don’t disproportionately seek to criminalize us.