Crack Cocaine

"Drugs had destroyed my body and my mind and my spirit. I could no longer experience happiness or surprise. I couldn't remember the last time I felt spontaneous joy. Why was I even alive?" Josh Hamilton in his autobiography, "Beyond Belief" WESTLAKE, Texas -- It was 2 a.m. when Josh Hamilton, strung out on crack cocaine, his once-robust 6-foot-4, 230-pound body withered to 180 pounds, most of his $3.96-million signing bonus squandered on booze and drugs, staggered up the steps to his grandmother's house in Raleigh, N.C. Homeless, dirty and barely coherent, Hamilton was a few days removed from a suicide attempt -- an overdose of pills -- and in the fourth year of a harrowing drug addiction that caused the former can't-miss prospect to be banned from baseball for three full seasons.

"Drugs had destroyed my body and my mind and my spirit. I could no longer experience happiness or surprise. I couldn't remember the last time I felt spontaneous joy. Why was I even alive?" Josh Hamilton in his autobiography, "Beyond Belief" WESTLAKE, Texas -- It was 2 a.m. when Josh Hamilton, strung out on crack cocaine, his once-robust 6-foot-4, 230-pound body withered to 180 pounds, most of his $3.96-million signing bonus squandered on booze and drugs, staggered up the steps to his grandmother's house in Raleigh, N.C. Homeless, dirty and barely coherent, Hamilton was a few days removed from a suicide attempt -- an overdose of pills -- and in the fourth year of a harrowing drug addiction that caused the former can't-miss prospect to be banned from baseball for three full seasons.

Whitney Houston's drug history is getting lots of media folks in trouble this week. Popular Southern California radio hosts John & Ken were suspended this week for suggesting she was a crackhead. And a Fox News commentator is in hot water for referring to Houston's use of a crack pipe. Here's the thing: Although Houston publicly acknowledged having used drugs, the late singer denied ever using crack cocaine. In fact, Houston famously suggested that crack was a cheap, trashy drug that was beneath her and her spending abilities.

Brien Taylor, who was the first overall pick of the 1991 MLB draft by the New York Yankees, has been sentenced to 38 months in prison in New Bern, N.C., after pleading guilty in August to distributing crack cocaine. Taylor, 40, told U.S. District Court Judge Louise W. Flanagan that he was sorry for causing so much pain to his family and his five daughters. Taylor was arrested as part of a sting in March after undercover narcotics agents bought a large quantity of cocaine and crack cocaine from him. Taylor will also have three years of supervised release after his prison term.

A 20-year-old man who spent $30,000 on a birthday bash last week has been charged with conspiracy to distribute 68 pounds of crack cocaine in what one official said may be the largest crack haul in the United States. Darryl (Little D) Reed "was the most feared drug dealer in Oakland," Russ Giuntini, Alameda County deputy district attorney, said Friday. In three years, Reed rose from street dealer to multimillionaire, according to Oakland narcotics Officer Ken Scott, who headed the investigation.

The Supreme Court agreed for the first time Monday to reconsider the long prison terms meted out to the mostly black defendants who are convicted of selling crack cocaine. At least 25,000 defendants per year are sent to federal prison on crack cocaine charges, and their prison terms are usually 50% longer than those for dealers selling powder cocaine.

Surely Jesse Jackson has more sense than to join the fray complaining about the alleged "racism" in crack cocaine legislation (Column Left, Nov. 5). The penalties are harsher because of the violence involved in the trade. Period. A white defendant would get the same treatment as a black one. So please, Jesse, stop picking on dummy issues and start addressing the children who are killing each other on our streets. DAN J. CURTIS Los Angeles

WASHINGTON — Nearly two years ago, President Obama signed into law a "fair sentencing" act to reduce the long prison terms meted out to people who were caught with small amounts of crack cocaine. But the law did not make clear whether it should apply to cases that were pending when the measure was signed. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will consider whether the lighter sentences apply to hundreds of cases in the pipeline when the law was signed on Aug. 3, 2010. The issue is complicated because the Justice Department and Atty.

The girl, dazed, disheveled and appearing no older than 12, realized very quickly that she had chosen the wrong time to cross the train tracks running through a favela in Rio de Janeiro. She refused to give her name or any information to the bulky Brazilian social workers and heavily armed police officers who suspected that she was addicted to crack cocaine and living on the street. "I'm not going with you. I'm not going anywhere. I'm just going to my mom's," she said.

Police stopped motorists who entered four neighborhoods known for crack cocaine dealing Thursday, wrote down license plate numbers and said they would warn vehicle owners by letter. "Not only does it discourage drug activity here," Deputy Chief Joe Gerwens said, "but I think we have an obligation to the citizens who drive in here to let them know about the dangers of this area."

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court threw a lifeline to thousands of convicted cocaine dealers who were on the edge of what the justices called a sentencing cliff. In a 5-4 ruling, the court said the Fair Sentencing Act, which relaxed mandatory prison sentences for crack cocaine dealers, covers people who were charged but not yet sentenced when the act became law in 2010. One of the few times recently when Congress has shortened rather than lengthened sentences, the act passed with bipartisan support to eliminate a stark disparity between the required sentences for powder cocaine sellers, who are often white, and those who sell crack cocaine, who are disproportionally black.

WASHINGTON - A Justice Department lawyer warned the Supreme Court on Tuesday there may be thousands of crack cocaine defendants sentenced to long prison terms under a law that Congress repealed two years ago as racially biased and unfair. Deputy Solicitor Gen. Michael Dreeben urged the court to tell sentencing judges to use the new law, not the discredited old one, when setting prison terms for those convicted of crack offenses but not yet sentenced when the law was passed. But by the end of an hourlong argument, it was not clear the Supreme Court would heed the request.

WASHINGTON — Nearly two years ago, President Obama signed into law a "fair sentencing" act to reduce the long prison terms meted out to people who were caught with small amounts of crack cocaine. But the law did not make clear whether it should apply to cases that were pending when the measure was signed. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will consider whether the lighter sentences apply to hundreds of cases in the pipeline when the law was signed on Aug. 3, 2010. The issue is complicated because the Justice Department and Atty.

Singer Whitney Houston appears to have suffered a heart episode before accidentally drowning in the bathtub of a Beverly Hills hotel suite, according to coroner's officials who listed cocaine use as a contributing factor. The autopsy results were released Thursday after weeks of intense speculation over how the 48-year-old pop star died. The case marks another high-profile Hollywood death connected to drug use, coming less than three years after Michael Jackson died suddenly at his Holmby Hills mansion.

Whitney Houston's drug history is getting lots of media folks in trouble this week. Popular Southern California radio hosts John & Ken were suspended this week for suggesting she was a crackhead. And a Fox News commentator is in hot water for referring to Houston's use of a crack pipe. Here's the thing: Although Houston publicly acknowledged having used drugs, the late singer denied ever using crack cocaine. In fact, Houston famously suggested that crack was a cheap, trashy drug that was beneath her and her spending abilities.

Their time together was so brief. Michelle Mitchell was at a sober-living home here, trying to halt a two decade-cycle of crack cocaine and prostitution. Her daughter Miracle, a bundle of energy in pink Velcro sneakers, tornadoed through the kitchen. A curvy woman with a dusting of freckles, Mitchell bear-hugged the 5-year-old. Studying Miracle was like peering into a mirror: same brown eyes, mahogany skin, wide smile. A teasing nature that belied a childhood full of indignities.

A sheriff who said he made crack to guarantee a supply for undercover operations has been told to stop by a state appeals court. "The sheriff of Broward County acted illegally in manufacturing crack," Judge Mark Polen wrote in Friday's decision. "The police agencies themselves cannot do an illegal act, albeit their intended goal is legal and desirable."

Nearly two ounces of crack cocaine with a $10,000 street value and more than $3,100 in cash were seized at a Ventura home, police said Tuesday. Officers were led to the house at 2466 Fernwood Drive by two men whom they had stopped for a traffic violation, Sgt. Steve Bowman said. Officers Ross Nideffer and Jim Cubitt stopped a car driven by Clarence Fisher, 18, of Altadena when Nideffer recognized Fisher as the suspect in a theft reported the week before, Bowman said.

The girl, dazed, disheveled and appearing no older than 12, realized very quickly that she had chosen the wrong time to cross the train tracks running through a favela in Rio de Janeiro. She refused to give her name or any information to the bulky Brazilian social workers and heavily armed police officers who suspected that she was addicted to crack cocaine and living on the street. "I'm not going with you. I'm not going anywhere. I'm just going to my mom's," she said.

About 12,000 federal prisoners nationwide may soon be going home, some as much as three years early, under a U.S. Sentencing Commission decision to allow retroactive reductions in prison terms for inmates convicted of crack cocaine offenses. The commission voted unanimously Thursday to bring "unfairly long sentences" for crack offenders, mostly African Americans, more in line with the shorter terms given to powder cocaine offenders, often white and sometimes affluent. Patti B. Saris, the panel's chairwoman, said that when Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act last year, it "recognized the fundamental unfairness of federal cocaine sentencing policy," and the commission sought to bridge the disparity between the two prison sentences.