The U.S. Sentencing Commission has passed a new law that could reduce the length of sentences for the approximately 12,000 people in federal prisons for crack-related crimes. That's 1 in 17 inmates, 85 percent of whom are African-American, doing hard time for crack possession and trafficking.
Attorney general Eric Holder has come out in favor of reduced sentences for thousands of people currently imprisoned on nonviolent crack cocaine convictions. (A recent law corrected the insane sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine; Holder is simply recommending that the new sentencing guidelines be…
Hey parents: It's so hard to find a decent daycare center these days, isn't it? Well, at least your kid isn't spending his or her formative years at R&B Childcare Services in Pittsburgh! Early yesterday, police raided the center just before kids began to arrive:
Alleged crack dealer Jaquan "Jay Cash" Layne — while sitting in prison on armed-robbery charges — back in 2009 made phone calls from a Riker's Island pay phone to his lackluster sales crew in Harlem, prosecutors said yesterday according to the Post. So, how does one go about motivating a group of less-than-motivated…
Police say they found a "small bag" of crack hidden inside the foreskin of one Antoine Banks, late of Fairdale, Ky., during a strip search ordered after another small bag of cocaine was found "tied to the waistband of Banks' boxers." There are, probably, better places on one's body to secrete contraband—certainly…
A new report by the EU's drug agency places Britain on top of the world's cocaine consuming nations, with more young Britons having used cocaine than Americans in the same age group. There's also been an increase in crack smoking.
Yesterday, we told you about the 12-year-old girl from Queens who was arrested for selling drugs. She turned 13 yesterday. Nothing like celebrating your first year as a teen in jail on charges of selling crack. Happy Birthday, young one!
What better time to get married than when you're standing in front of a judge, handcuffed and in a jumpsuit, for a motions hearing on crack charges? That's what Franklin Barndt did on Friday when he married girlfriend Takesha Piazza.
Hey, your Congress did something today! The House passed a bill (already passed by the Senate) to reduce a relic of '80s-style freak-out legislation: reducing the massive disparity between powder and crack cocaine prison sentences.
In spite of a high-profile federal crackdown, Reed College's annual hippie drug fest, Renn Fayre, came and went without a single arrest. Surprise side effect: the Feds now say they can prosecute tacitly drug-friendly colleges for being crack houses.
Former North Carolina TV newsman Jon Robinson is more interesting than most TV newsmen: "What I really wanted to say [on air] is, 'I shot heroin last night and smoked crack and watched eight hours of pornos.'"
If there's one thing drug-addled hipsters and American Apparel models have in common, it's their love for cocaine! Fortunately, someone took note and turned this anti-drug PSA into an ad for the hipster's hellhole of fashion.
Spencer Morgan's newest Profile of an Odd Man is good enough to make you throw up, because you can almost hear the crack bubbling in a fucked up corner of a too-cool subculture. Ugh. Crack.
With all the swastika-carving and interracial marriage-objecting, among other things, it appears the States have regressed back to a state of full blown racism. That's only partially true, because Dick Durbin today introduced some race-blind drug legislation. And it's personal...
The Washington City Paper has landed a treasure-trove of voicemails and other recordings documenting the ongoing episode of COPS that is former D.C. mayor Marion Barry's relationship with the girlfriend he was arrested for stalking on Saturday.
Here's one of the LA Times' suggestions for "D.I.Y. Gifts" this holiday season. Uh...crack? [LAT]
Poor George Michael. Just weeks after completing his first world tour in fifteen years, the singer was busted in a London public bathroom for drug possession. The police report doesn't name Michael, but sources confirmed to the British press that he was busted Friday for crack possession after a suspicious bathroom…
A memoir worth reading? Imagine that! New York Times media reporter David Carr's Night of the Gun comes out next month, and it's been treated to a nice nine-page excerpt in today's NYT Magazine. After detailing how he became a crack addict and how his dealer/girlfriend prematurely gave birth to his twin daughters…
When word broke yesterday that Oscar winner Tatum "My Career Peaked Before I Had Pubes" O'Neal was pinched by the NYPD for buying crack off a vagrant, we found her initial explanation that she was simply doing research for a role just a bit far-fetched. After all, color us jaded, but we found it out of the realm of…
If you're famous, and you want to do cocaine (or smoke crack), our best advice is: don't do it, because you're a role model. Ha ha. But seriously, hopeless crackhead celebrities; if you're going to do it at least don't be an idiot. Coke is hardly even frowned upon in Hollywood, but getting busted while acting like a…
