Missouri is one of just eight states that treats crack and powder cocaine differently at sentencing, despite the fact that they’re chemically identical drugs. The drastic, draconian difference in penalties is a miscarriage of justice that’s lingered for decades, affecting families across the state.
It’s a remnant of the failed war on drugs.
In Missouri, someone who sells just a single ounce (about the weight of two empty soda cans) of crack cocaine receives the same sentence as someone selling more than a pound (18.75 ounces) of powder cocaine.
Put another way, the disparity is like one person having 21 M&Ms and another person having 395 and the law considering the amounts the same. Even a child can see how deeply unfair that disparity is.
This disparity is one of the largest in the entire country, and it’s time to end it once and for all. The two drugs are the same, with the same effects, and taken in nearly identical amounts when people use them.
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There is, quite simply, no scientific justification for treating crack and powder cocaine differently.
All the reasons given back in the 1980s during the height of the war on drugs have been proven false. That time was a hailstorm of misinformation, fear and hyperbolic reporting about crack. They are simply different forms of the same drug and there are no inherent differences in the risks they present.
In similar fashion, there’s now much talk about the epidemic of overdose deaths in our state and country — a nationwide tragedy that has impacted far too many families. But the biggest driver of overdose deaths in recent years has been opioids, including fentanyl.
Overdose deaths resulting from just cocaine (meaning, absent any opioid) made up just 5.5% of overdose deaths in 2019, while opioid involvement accounted for an overwhelming 70.6% of overdose deaths. The opioid overdose crisis requires a bold response but maintaining an unrelated inequality in sentencing for a drug that is not the primary driver of the epidemic is neither appropriate nor necessary to solve that problem.
Furthermore, public safety is not harmed by equalizing crack and powder sentencing. Eliminating sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine has not led to increases in drug use or crime for the states that removed their disparities. In fact, the six states that have eliminated disparities since 2005 all saw subsequent decreases in drug crimes.
The disparity is deeply unfair and racially discriminatory in its impact. Blacks comprise 80% of all people sentenced for crack cocaine offenses, an overwhelming majority of those impacted by the injustice.
When Black communities across America say the criminal justice system is racist, the crack-powder disparity is perhaps the most glaring example of what they mean. When we know a law is treating people of color differently for no good reason, fairness demands that we must fix it.
Communities are safer when people trust and respect the criminal justice system. For too long, the crack-powder disparity has eroded this trust, which is why many members of law enforcement including the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys support getting rid of the disparity.
Equalizing crack and powder sentencing removes an ugly stain from our criminal laws and communicates that we care about correcting the mistakes of the past and increasing public trust in the justice system.
The National District Attorneys Association reports that trust in the criminal justice system grew in jurisdictions that eliminated the disparity, and that there was no increase in local crime.
This is a simple, commonsense change that everyone can get behind. The Missouri House of Representatives has already unanimously passed legislation to eliminate the disparity, marking a broad bipartisan acknowledgment of the need to fix this long-standing blemish in the criminal code.
When something has overwhelming support like this in this day and age, we need to come together and get it done. We call on the Senate and the governor to push across the finish line this session, and right this historical wrong. It is long past time to end the disparity.
Maria Goellner is the Deputy Policy Director for Famm. Jeremy Cady is the Americans for Prosperity Missouri State Director.
