penalties than cocaine in powder form.

that crack cocaine is connected with physical violence used to get money to buy the drug, and powder cocaine is sometimes associated with so-called "white collar crime" (like embezzlement) that is use to obtain funds for that drug purchase. People were more worried about being the victims of violent crime than being the victims of being cheated out of money. Perhaps not rational, but that was the view during that time.

which was more addictive and destructive to black users and their families and community. And guess who was doing the flooding? Organized crime in conjunction with the government—research Oliver North and the Contras drugs (cocaine) for arms. Journalist Gary Webb exposed the whole ring for the San Jose Mercury in the 90s and had his career go up in smoke as the government tried to destroy him for shedding light on their drug running.

Powder was always available but the objective was to get people addicted, jailed with purposely longer sentences than powder cases (it's called blatant racism), and put away in prison, thus killing two birds at once of the Nixon agenda's enemies—drugs and black people.

Note: Black people have always known who the enemies were/are just as more recently with W Bush and trump.

I was just referring to the emotional climate that got draconian drug laws (including those still on the books involving asset forfeiture) passed, and then rubber-stamped by the SCOTUS.

This is something that never gets enough exposure. Are there more dirty secrets out there?