On Tuesday, President Obama signed a historical bill into law: The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010. This law specifically tackles the sentencing disparities between those who have been arrested for possession of powder cocaine versus crack (or rock) cocaine. Yup, those arrested for possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine received a mandatory 5 year sentence (possession of 10 grams got 10 years) while one caught with powder cocaine required possession of at least 500 grams to get the same type of sentencing. The 100-1 sentencing disparity has been lowered to 18-1 with The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 now in place. Now a crack defendant needs to have at least 28 grams in possession to get that same 5 years.
