Thousands of crack sentences could be reduced

[Sapphire]

Rules taking effect this week intended to bring fairness to drug penalties

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23454471/

[Sista08]

Saw this earlier BOUT TIME!!!

<---not a crack advocate
<---is an advocate for fairness

[Cambist]

[glow=red,2,300]* * * * * * W A R N I N G * * * * * *[/glow]

_____UNPOPULAR OPINION TO FOLLOW_____

I love my people....really I do....BUT....while i'm an advocate for equity in sentencing....why not just raise the terms on powder cocaine? What kind of message is this sending? Drugs are bad but not bad enough to lock up white folks?

Plus, I don't know about y'all but I grew up during the crack boom. For those of you who don't know anything about the South...let me learn ya.

During the big crack boom every street thug was getting rich. In larger cities like NYC and LA these thugs were slanging and banging and getting away with much of it. When the heat came down, many of them moved to places like Arkansas. While here, they decided that instead of making a clean start, they'd open shop and bring their gang styles and drug operation protocol in the South.

So those "nigga" that never got caught in NYC and LA usually ended up in a cemetary or prision in Arkansas. But not after they had exposed the streets to crack and the game.

So i'm not happy about these guys getting out. fuck them. I totally understand social situations that make slangin an attractive option to poor youth. But letting them go is only saying that "We value you so little that we would rather let you go and kill each other than increase the penalties on the main ingredient you use to MAKE YOUR PRODUCT!"

God forbid we have to start locking up white people! Look at what's happening with Crystal Meth. They have started all kinds of amnisty programs and limited sentencing legislation to keep meth from filling the prisions with it's primary users, which happen to be white.

Wake up and start asking questions.

* * * * END RANT * * * *

[Prissy New Year!!!]

I agree with you Cam. The only thing though is that a lot of people who may not have had a large part in the distribution of crack got longer sentences than those who manufactured the drug and hired the small time dealers on the street.

My husband was in college with a guy who sold a little crack to make ends meet while waiting on his refund check. That was a bad decision, he was in his last year in school and got 8 years in jail. Now, a better solution for someone like him would have been probation or some type of first offender deal which left him without a felony so that he could finish school and live a productive life. I think that the judges should be allowed to sentence based on circumstances, rather than the required minimum that they are forced to abide by.

[Cambist]

I agree 100%.

[Sista08]

<---agreeing with Cami now
<---is repeating that she was never a crack advocate
<---wants more cocaine offenders doing more time