1.   And because Congress drew an arbitrary distinction between crack and powdered cocaine, many blacks are doing harder time than their white counterparts.

2.   And because Congress drew an arbitrary distinction between crack and powdered cocaine, many blacks are doing much harder time than their white counterparts.

3.   Attorney General Janet Reno this week proposed to close the gulf in prison sentences between the crack and powdered cocaine.

4.   A decade ago, in political hysteria, Congress began penalizing users and sellers of crack far more harshly than users and dealers of powdered cocaine.

5.   Across rural Colombia, thousands of laborers process the paste into a sludge that is dried to form the raw ingredient for powdered cocaine hydrochloride.

6.   Aiah said he snorted powdered cocaine and applied crack cocaine to cuts in his skin.

7.   Cocaine hydrochloride, the scientific name for powdered cocaine, is refined from an alkaloid leached from coca leaves.

8.   Congress decided to maintain mandatory prison sentences that sometimes punish small-time crack pushers more harshly than the powdered cocaine dealers who supply them.

9.   Crack is more commonly dealt by blacks, while powdered cocaine is more commonly dealt by whites.

10.   Dinh said it was more appropriate to compare the sentences for like amounts of crack and powdered cocaine.