Finally, is there anything distinctive about the racial component of drug consumption? African Americans consume about 95% of crack cocaine in this country, while Caucasians and Latinos predominate among powder cocaine users (Washington Post 1997).Why is the racial component of drug consumption important to a definition of the prison crowding issue? One answer is that under federal law, possession of five grams of cocaine powder is a misdemeanor and carries a maximum sentence of only one year. By contrast, possession of five grams of crack cocaine is a felony and carries a maximum sentence of five years. If the offender is found with more than fifty grams of crack, the mandatory sentence goes to ten years. One difficulty in resolving policy problems is that classification analysis is disrupted by partisan politics and the separation of powers. While many in Congress proposed even greater penalties for cocaine the Clinton administration was proposing reduction of the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing.