Wayne Allard: “I got involved in this issue because I do hold a lot of town meetings in the State of Colorado, the State which I…”

“I got involved in this issue because I do hold a lot of town meetings in the State of Colorado, the State which I represent. In the inner-city areas of the Denver metropolitan area, the issue of discrepancy sentencing between powder cocaine and crack cocaine was brought up by the minority communities. There were a few members who felt the crack cocaine penalties should be less. But, by far, the majority of members in those meetings felt we needed to make tougher powder cocaine penalties because the crack cocaine penalties were working. I also heard some concern from within the judiciary of the State of Colorado about the discrepancy between crack and powder cocaine. So that is how I got involved in the issue. Then I had introduced some legislation to deal with this issue. I had an opportunity to sit down with the Senator from Michigan and we have worked out a provision in a new bill that I think is the right answer. It does toughen the penalties on powder cocaine, brings it more in line with crack cocaine.”