Perhaps no aspect of the drug war has contributed to the rapid increase of African-American prisoners in federal prisons more than the federal cocaine sentencing scheme. Federal sentencing rules for the possession and sale of cocaine distinguished between cocaine in powder form and cocaine prepared as crack. A person sentenced for possession with intent to distribute a given amount of crack cocaine received the same sentence as someone who possessed one hundred times as much powder cocaine. The difference in crack/powder cocaine sentencing was significant because African-Americans were more likely to use crack, while white drug users were more likely to use powder cocaine. The new laws against crack helped to drive the most massive wave of imprisonment in the history of the United States.
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