Policy

Dept. of Drug War Analogies

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Stephen Chapman proposes an expansion of the crack/powder disparity:

Drunken driving is a serious national problem. So here's a proposal: Wine drinkers would not be arrested for DUI unless they have a blood-alcohol level of 0.10. But anyone drinking hard liquor would be considered intoxicated at 0.02.

I know it sounds nutty, since drunk is drunk, regardless of what you use to get there. But it's no crazier than the federal law on crack cocaine….To get five years in prison, a criminal had to be caught with 500 grams of powder cocaine, weighing 1.1 pounds, about as much as a typical package of ground beef–or 5 grams of crack, weighing as much as a nickel. To get 10 years, you'd need 5,000 grams of powder (11 pounds) or 50 grams (less than 2 ounces) of crack.