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File Name | S22-Policy-NCFCA-20-NEG-Cocaine.docx |
File Size | 315.22 KB |
Date added | October 25, 2021 |
Category | Policy (NCFCA) |
Author | Josiah Hemp & Vance Trefethen |
Resolved: The United States Federal Government should significantly reform its policies regarding convicted prisoners under federal jurisdiction
The Affirmative teams plan is to pass the EQUAL Act, which would remove the 18:1 sentencing disparity under which the mandatory minimum sentencing for “Crack” cocaine is significantly higher than the mandatory minimum sentencing for the same amount of powder cocaine. “Crack” is a concentrated form of cocaine that (NEG will argue) is more powerful and more addictive and therefore more destructive in the communities where it is sold and used. Crack became an epidemic in large cities in the US in the mid-1980’s and early 1990s. It’s never gone away, though it has been eclipsed in the last generation by methamphetamines and by the opioid epidemic, including heroin.
AFF argues that it is unjust to have the sentencing disparity between Crack and powder cocaine because these drugs are, from a chemical standpoint, the same. Further, AFF argues that the sentencing disparity is racist because it leads to blacks being sentenced worse than whites. NEG turns this around by pointing out that the original push for cracking down on crack came from the black community and black members of Congress themselves, because they saw the devastation it was causing in minority communities among their constituents. It’s disingenuous to say the disparity is racist when it was the black community demanding the disparity in the first place.
This brief argues that crack is in fact worse than powder cocaine for a variety of reasons, and thus it deserves to have a higher sentence.