Rules Based On Fear

Mandatory sentences for crack have been 100 times those for cocaine since the 80s. Congress has just reduced the ratio to 18 to 1.  Steven Taylor draws lessons:

I would not recommend crack cocaine usage and there were (and are)still social costs of some significance associated with its usage.  Theproblem with the reaction in the 1980s was that, like much of our druglaws, we overreact and make rules based on fear and the drama of themoment rather than rational consideration of the problem.  We...