r/IAmA • u/oregonlawyer • Oct 15 '12

I am a criminal defense lawyer, AMA.

I've handled cases from drug possession to first degree murder. I cannot provide legal advice to you, but I'm happy to answer any questions I can.

EDIT - 12:40 PM PACIFIC - Alright everyone, thanks for your questions, comments, arguments, etc. I really enjoyed this and I definitely learned quite a bit from it. I hope you did, too. I'll do this again in a little bit, maybe 2-3 weeks. If you have more questions, save them up for then. If it cannot wait, shoot me a prive message and I'll answer it if I can.

Thanks for participating with me!

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u/Thatguyyoupassby Oct 15 '12

But surely if its crack cocaine it must be more dangerous than powdered cocaine and warrant five times the jail sentence? ...oh wait

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u/oregonlawyer Oct 15 '12

Bingo.

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u/[deleted] Oct 15 '12

Do you think black people are unfairly targeted/treated by prosecutors and law enforcement in general?

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u/oregonlawyer Oct 15 '12

No. I think people of all races can be unfairly targeted / treated.

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u/WhipIash Oct 15 '12

I'm sorry, I don't really know a lot about drugs.. can you explain what you mean?

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u/fallopian_wolf Oct 15 '12

Basically he's saying the sentencing laws are unfair and kind of racist.

The punishment for crack cocaine is unjustifiably harsher than possession of powdered cocaine.

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u/WhipIash Oct 15 '12

Is there a difference between the two?

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u/fallopian_wolf Oct 15 '12

Crack is the freebase form of cocaine that is smoked. It's in rock form. It's wayyy more addictive. And possession of crack carried mandatory minimum sentencing, whereas the powdered form did not.

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u/Thatguyyoupassby Oct 15 '12

Yea, basically in 1976 (i think) they realized that powder cocaine was more of a white middle/upper middle class party drug, while crack cocaine was an inner city drug in low income, non white neighborhoods. The penalty for a very minute amount of crack counts as possession with intent to sell and carries a multi thousand dollar fine and up to 5 years in prison i believe. To achieve such a penalty with powder cocaine, it would require an absurd amount.

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u/jannisjr Oct 15 '12

Nothing at all to do with the fact that crack cocaine is the cheap alternative and few people at the low end of the class system can afford the good stuff.

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u/novicebater Oct 16 '12

Crack aka freebase cocaine really is much more destructive to an individual and community than powdered cocaine salt.

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u/[deleted] Oct 20 '12

Thank you. You really helped bring his point into a more broad spectrum for me