Many myths surround the use of cocaine and crack (Szalavitz, Maia. 1999). There are severe penalties, though diverse, for the sale and possession of crack and cocaine. In the U.S for example, if a person gets caught in possession of 28grams of crack, then they would serve a jail term of 5 years. However, it takes possession of 500 grams of powdered cocaine for one to serve the same sentence(Szalavitz, Maia. 1999). The question remains, ‘even though the use of drugs is illegal, should a person receive the same jail term for personal use of crack and the distribution of cocaine?' This essay seeks to discuss whether the statement mentioned above is valid by using a theoretical analysis on the same.
Numerous debates have been held to discuss the issue in detail. Some people have argued that criminal offenses should not serve the same jail times. Instead, the law should consider increasing the number of penalties in the event of recurrence of crimes(Greenwald et al. 2009). The lawmakers could adopt a compulsory rehabilitation for the first offense and an increase in jail time for following violations as an appropriate way of dealing with such crimes (Greenwald et al. 2009). I think people (first-time offenders) who are willing to be rehabilitated should be given a second chance instead of making them throw away their lives as comfortable as serving multiple years in jail (Greenwald et al. 2009).
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I find it discriminating especially against the poor people that the jail time for both crack and powdered cocaine should be the same (Johnston et al. 2011). Crack is cheaper and more accessible among the poor in the United States compared to powdered cocaine, which is relatively expensive and considered a hard drug (Johnston et al. 2011). Amendments concerning penalties for the use of hard drugs should be made to eradicate bias in terms of social class (Greenwald et al. 2009).
Works Cited
Greenwald, Glenn; Peter Reuter; Tim Lynch (2009-04-03). "Lessons to Creating successful and fair Drug Policies."
"Illicit drugs – offenses and penalties ." Police.govt.nz . Retrieved 9 April 2018
Johnston, L. D., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2011). Checking the Future: National results on teen drug use, 2010 . Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Research, The University of Michigan.
Reinarman, Craig and Harry G. Levine, eds. 1997. Crack abuse in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice . Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN: 0520202422.
Szalavitz, Maia. 1999. Cracked up: How did a drug whose addictive properties got compared to potato chips become the scourge of America? May 11 http://www.salon.com/1999/05/11/crack_media/ .
