Legislative Background
Recent Action on Federal Cocaine Sentencing
The Omnibus Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 set the current mandatory minimum sentences for various quantities of illegal drugs. With respect to cocaine, the law was amended to provide that a five-year mandatory minimum sentence would be triggered by trafficking 500 grams of crack cocaine or only five grams of powder cocaine — a 100:1 ratio. A 10-year mandatory minimum sentence was imposed for trafficking in 5,000 grams of powder cocaine or 50 grams of crack, also a 100:1 ratio. In 1988, Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which added a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for the simple…
