The 1986 Act codified a 100-to-1 crack versus powder sentencing ratio

Evidence

Under Ronald Reagan, the War on Drugs went into overdrive. In the 1980s, Congress passed several laws under the guise of fighting this so-called war. First, the 1984 Comprehensive Crime Control and Safe Streets Act eliminated parole in the federal system. Two years later the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act established mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offenses, including the hundred-to-one ratio between crack and powder cocaine sentences. In other words, the amount of crack cocaine required to trigger the minimum sentencing guidelines was one hundred times less than the amount of powder cocaine required for a minimum sentence. A report from the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit dedicated to criminal justice reform, provides a very clear illustration of the impact of the 100-to-1 disparity: A dealer charged with trafficking 400 grams of powder, worth approximately 40,000, could receive a shorter sentence than a user he supplied with crack valued at 500. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 411