[porpoisemonkey]

There are two separate issues.

One is the disproportionate attention minority races get from the police. It's not hard evidence but here's a CNN report discussing the profiling that wealthy blacks receive in the United States.

http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/14/news/economy/wealthy-blacks-...

The second is the disproportionate sentencing for similar or identical crimes. Again without any hard data this seems to be mostly a class based issue. One commonly cited example of this is the differences in mandatory minimum sentences between crack cocaine and regular cocaine. Crack cocaine is often associated with lower classes due to being cheaper to acquire than powdered cocaine. Additionally there are significant differences between the legal representation that can be afforded at different levels of income.

Coupled with issue 1 this creates a disparity in how the US justice system treats minorities.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2010/08/03/data-show-rac...

[rblatz]

The typical ingestion method between crack and powder cocaine are drastically different. The way the body absorbs both drugs is different and the impact the drug has on its users and society is much different.

Just because things are chemically similar doesn't mean they are the same, nor should they bet treated the same.

But I do agree that on the whole white people get cut breaks where minorities would not. I just don't think the crack/coke example is a very strong one.

[ryanlol]

>the impact the drug has on its users and society is much different.

Would you like to expand on those? I don't see why crack would be any worse than normal coke. In fact, considering the effects are significantly shorter it seems much more suitable for a productive lifestyle.

[nickff]

Crack has a much more intense, shorter high, and is much more closely associated with negative life outcomes than powder cocaine. Powder cocaine users tend to be much more high functioning than crack users.

Many of the laws tough on crack cocaine were brought in during the 80s and 90s when crack was thought (perhaps accurately) to be tearing African American communities apart, and many of the campaigners for the tough laws were African American community leaders.

[John23832]

> and is much more closely associated with negative life outcomes than powder cocaine.

Says who? You?

And even still, couldn't you say that the harsher sentencing guidelines around crack are to blame for that?

[brokenmachine]

Lol, crack is much more suitable for a productive lifestyle!!

I was under the impression (maybe untrue) that it was more intense/addictive, but maybe that's just media bias working on me.

[ryanlol]

It's a more intense high with a much shorter duration so one would have much higher control over when they're high and not high.

I don't believe it's significantly more addictive though, it's just more affordable to the most vulnerable demographics due to the smaller dosages.

[abricot]

Does the law require taking chemistry into account for sentencing? Is Crack and Cocaine different classes of drugs?

[nickff]

There are many different laws and sentencing guidelines, and many of them do differentiate between the two forms (?) of cocaine.