Make all drugs legal, put a heavy tax on it, and we can eradicate budget deficits in every state. Then we can all end up in rehab, divorced, broke and unemployeed. What message are you sending when you blame your addiction on one group?

People make choices in life. You are free to make the right or wrong one. Don't blame people that are successful because they made the right choice of staying drug free.

Obama, Scott and Holder need to seperate themseleves from the ACLU. All three all black and are not helping their race to eliminate the use and sale of drugs by not passing stiffer sentencing penalties. Scotts bill makes no sense at all. Increasing the possession limits from 5 grams to 500 grams for crack cocaine is heading in the wrong direction. Why not go in the other direction and make no distinction between crack cocaine and powder cocaine and require a mandatory five-year sentence for possessing 5 grams or more of either type. Chalk one up for the liberals who are just looking at this becasuse the present law for possessing crack cocaine in their view creates sentencing disparity by affecting poor and black drug users. What about the drug dealers who stand on the corners and push their drugs in the black neighborhoods. Talk about racial profiling and not helping your own race combat the use of drugs. Cocaine is cocaine and it is destroying this country and affects all races.

involving sentences from crack versus powder cocaine had to do with the perceived increase in violent behavior when one was on crack. I'm not justifying it, I'm just explaining part of the reasoning. Whether that's fair or not, it is what is it is!

I think our prison system could use relief from the sheer numbers of inmates who are there for many (certainly not all!) drug related crimes. The 'war on drugs' has been arguably the biggest failure in this nation's history (right up there with the 'war on poverty', among others). Time to re-assess.

It appears that changing the penalty for 5 grams of crack cocaine to 500 grams is only making it easier on those desiring to possess, lets say 499 grams of crack cocaine. One would think the more stringent limit would be applied not the less stringent.

Well let's see, i don't think any drug dealer in the street corners has 500 grams of crack or powder cocaine. I'm guessing it's more like couple of grams. I don't think not too many people in this area(Hampton Roads)are using powder cocaine, they are getting pieces of crack from their local drug dealer. That said, in my opinion, sententing guidelines on crack cocaine has to be longer than powder cocaine. Crack cocaine is easier to get, highly addictive(not saying powder cocaine isn't), it is much cheaper. Stop putting the race card on everything, nobody is forcing you to do drugs, nobody is holding gun to your head, making you committing crimes to support your drug habit, you are doing that to your self. Blaming others on your habit is kinda immature.

Racism is alive and well. Paris Hilton does blow and she will get probation. Someone does crack, they lock them up and throw away the key. Hmmmm, yeah that's fair. nothing racist about our system of justice. Just us taking care of the folks with the money.

What difference does it make what form the drugs are in, drugs are drugs and the punishment should be the same.