Drugs

For many years people used recreational cocaine like they did alcohol and it gave a high like alcohol. In the 1970's someone discovered that you could heat up cocaine and smoke it and get a quicker high but it didn't last long so you had to have another hit. Drug offenses account for 350,000 in prison and remains the defining feature of the prison system. Combined with a 115 month average time for crack and 87 months for cocaine this disparity results in more Blacks spending more time in prison. Overall time for marijuana is 41 months but that is for dealers. The number in for using marijuana has declined from 2,172 in 2014 to 145 in 2021. 18% of prisoners committed their crime to obtain money for drugs. To achieve equity either the penalty for cocaine should increase or the penalty for crack should decrease. Some say that all drugs should be decriminalized or even legalize