There is a huge disparity in drug-laws in this country. Despite cocaine and crack being chemically identical, the drug laws for the two substances unfairly views possession of 500 grams of powder cocaine as an equal offense as possession of five grams of crack cocaine. He explains that current drug laws are ridiculous and reflect myths, not reality. Studies prove that "cocaine is crack snorted in powder form." If this is the case, then why the disparity in drug laws between crack and powder cocaine? As the National Survey on Drug Use on Health points out, that 80 percent of those who have tried crack have not tried it again in the last year. So yet again, why the disparity? Furthermore there are few links between crack use and violent crime, a common justification for the Draconian laws regarding crack cocaine use. Once again, why the disparity?

The reason: racism and a feeling that government should and can solve society's problems. Crack is used by poor, inner-city Blacks of whom it is estimated that roughly 75% who often are incarcerated for possessing very little crack with the intent to sell a bit to make a bit of a profit. Powder cocaine users are usually well off and are merely "freebasing" and not harming anyone. Whenever there is a problem in this country, the government declares "war" on it and people think the problem will be solved. This is not the case. The "war on drugs," the "war on poverty," and the "war on terror," are all stupid concepts and have failed or are failing. Despite what Americans may think, we live in a nation full of druggies, and so what? Just because supersensitive, wealthy, Anglo-Saxon politicians of the 1980s got the heeby-jeebies when they saw lots of people with dark skin smoking the drug they were snorting, we do not have to still accept the stupid laws they made. Furthermore, if some guy down on his luck wants to smoke a bit of crack, as long as he does not harm anyone, who is to judge him, or tell him that that is wrong, If all these substances were decriminalized, or dare I say it, legalized, at least in the case of marijuana, lives would not be ruined when someone was "caught" getting stoned or in possession of small amounts of illicit substances. Many TV personalities (i.e. Larry Kudlow, Jim Cramer, anyone on CNBC who worked in a hedge fund) have openly admitted to cocaine use, and although that is allegedly immoral, we should not judge others through legislation. This is a free nation, and our past shows us that prohibition does not work. It did not work with alcohol, it is not working with marijuana, and as this editorial explains, it is not working with crack. Finally, when will Americans realize that so much money is wasted enforcing Draconian drug laws, so much crime is produced from this country's prohibition of drugs, and so many lives are destroyed for merely getting high, that "we cannot incarcerate our way to a drug-free society."

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