Changing the inherent racism in drug sentencing laws would also reduce the prison population. Consider the following:
1) Two-thirds of all persons in prison for drug offenses are people of color.
2) According to a Fed study in 2002, there were approximately 14 million white Americans who had used drugs in the previous month, compared to about 2.6 million African Americans who had done so. In other words, there were five times as many whites using drugs as African Americans.
3) Despite this disparity, African Americans were admitted to prison for drug offenses at nearly 10 times the rate of whites.