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 Techno_Raver
Super Mario Bro
 
Registered: 05/05/06
Posts: 256
Loc: The Mushroom Kingdom
Last seen: 2 days, 15 hours
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 Crack cocaine sentencing go into effect
#7584080 - 11/01/07 01:30 PM (9 months, 29 days ago) |
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1 hour, 44 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - New federal sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine offenders went into effect Thursday, lowering the recommended sentencing range for people caught with the drug.
The new U.S. Sentencing Commission guidelines for those possessing 5 grams or more of crack cocaine are prison terms of 51 months to 63 months, down from the old range of 63 months to 78 months. The new range for offenders possessing at least 50 grams is 97 months to 121 months in prison, down from 121 months to 151 months. Those ranges apply for first-time crack-cocaine convictions.
In April, the commission voted for the lower recommended sentencing ranges for those caught with crack cocaine. The recommendation sent to Capitol Hill on May 1 became effective Thursday after 180 days of congressional review.
The reduction will be the focus of a Nov. 13 commission hearing to consider whether to make the lower guideline penalty retroactively available to 19,500 crack cocaine offenders who were sentenced previously.
Federal law sets a mandatory minimum five-year prison sentence for trafficking in 5 grams of crack cocaine. It takes 500 grams of cocaine powder to warrant the same sentence. The crack-powder disparity has a strong racial dimension because more than four-fifths of crack cocaine offenders in federal courts last year were black.
A commission analysis estimated the change would reduce the size of the federal prison population by 3,800 in 15 years. Such a reduction would result in savings of over $87 million, according to The Sentencing Project, a private organization tracking the issue.
The sentencing commission is urging Congress to repeal the mandatory prison term for simple possession and increase the amount of crack cocaine required to trigger five-year and 10-year mandatory minimum prison terms as a way to focus on major drug traffickers.
The mandatory five-year minimum trumps the lower end of the new guideline range that went into effect Thursday, meaning that the newly available range is 60 to 63 months. The same principle applies to the 10-year mandatory minimum, making the newly available range 120 to 121 months.
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On the Net:
U.S. Sentencing Commission: http://www.ussc.gov/
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Disclaimer: I cannot be held responsible for anything I say or do. If any of it is illegal, it is to be considered "Total Bullshit!"
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jeverden
Mushroom Hunter
Registered: 05/10/06
Posts: 1,082
Last seen: 4 days, 7 hours
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Re: Crack cocaine sentencing go into effect [Re: Techno_Raver]
#7584306 - 11/01/07 02:39 PM (9 months, 29 days ago) |
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Still bullshit charge it the same as what powder is charged.
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All of my posts are purely fictional and for hypothetical purposes.
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 EntheogenicPeace
Scholar
Registered: 10/04/05
Posts: 2,206
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Re: Crack cocaine sentencing go into effect [Re: jeverden]
#7584341 - 11/01/07 02:49 PM (9 months, 29 days ago) |
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Better yet, how about just stop arresting, prosecuting & imprisoning people altogether for the 'crime' of exercising their Constitutional rights?
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"Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every pine needle, every sandy shore, every humming insect is holy... We are part of the earth and it is part of us... The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth." - Chief Seattle
"...the role our nation has taken... of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments... we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values... When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered." - Martin Luther King Jr.
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IncenseTool
Stranger
Registered: 10/19/07
Posts: 59
Last seen: 9 months, 18 days
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crack is wack
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wireless
Thizziswhatis
Registered: 11/06/06
Posts: 799
Last seen: 3 hours, 15 minutes
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Re: Crack cocaine sentencing go into effect [Re: IncenseTool]
#7585488 - 11/01/07 08:26 PM (9 months, 29 days ago) |
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I've always felt the crack laws are some of the most racist laws I have ever seen. There should be MMS at all, but at least we are taking a step in the right direction for drug USERS.
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EntheogenicPeace
Scholar
Registered: 10/04/05
Posts: 2,206
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Re: Crack cocaine sentencing go into effect [Re: IncenseTool]
#7585595 - 11/01/07 08:58 PM (9 months, 29 days ago) |
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Quote:
crack is wack
And this has what to do with anything?
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IncenseTool
Stranger
Registered: 10/19/07
Posts: 59
Last seen: 9 months, 18 days
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that crack is whack whoever smokes it is an idiot. the topic has to do with crack doesnt it
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EntheogenicPeace
Scholar
Registered: 10/04/05
Posts: 2,206
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Re: Crack cocaine sentencing go into effect [Re: IncenseTool]
#7585744 - 11/01/07 09:40 PM (9 months, 29 days ago) |
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Yes, crack cocaine is the topic... the legal ramifications of it, though, not one's opinion on it. If everything that at least one person didn't like were banned, then everything would be banned. If I were to post one of the following....
weed is greed
tobacco es el whacko
heroin is a sin
PCP is bad for me
'Shrooms bring only doom
or
AMT is GayMT
What do any of these quips have to do with legality & the Constitution... or anything for that matter?
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Koala Koolio
TTAGGGTTAGGGTTAGGGTTAGGG
Registered: 01/07/04
Posts: 7,727
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Quote:
EntheogenicPeace said:
AMT is GayMT
Post of the day(MT). 
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You're not like the others. You like the same things I do. Wax paper, boiled football leather... dog breath. We're not hitch-hiking anymore, we're riding!
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EntheogenicPeace
Scholar
Registered: 10/04/05
Posts: 2,206
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Re: Crack cocaine sentencing go into effect [Re: Koala Koolio]
#7594693 - 11/04/07 01:55 PM (9 months, 26 days ago) |
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Lol. Thanks. I thought all the other ones were stupid besides that one. I was trying to illustrate that using a cliche phrase describing one's dislike of something isn't sufficient reason for it to be banned; that wanting cocaine banned while cannabis to be legal is the same kind of hypocrisy that enables tens of millions in the U.S. to believe cannabis should be prohibited while alcohol remain legal.
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