someone of their own racial or ethnic background. But, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, over 70 percent of all Federal narcotics offenders sentenced each year are African-Americans and Hispanic Americans, many of whom are low-level offenders. (11) As a result of Federal prosecutors’ focus on low-level drug offenders, the overwhelming majority of individuals subject to the heightened crack cocaine penalties are African-American. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s 2007 Report to Congress on crack cocaine, only 8.8 percent of Federal crack cocaine convictions were imposed on White Americans, while 81.8 percent and 8.4 percent were imposed on African-Americans and Hispanics, respectively. (12) According to the U.S. Census, African-Americans comprise 12 percent of the U.S. population and, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, about 10 percent of all drug users, but almost 30 percent of all Federal drug convictions according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. (13) According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, African-Americans, on average, now serve almost as much time in Federal prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as Whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months). (14) According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, in 2010, almost 30 percent of women entering Federal prison did so for a drug offense. Linking drug quantity with punishment severity has had a particularly profound impact on women, who are more likely to play peripheral roles in a drug enterprise than men. However, because prosecutors can attach drug quantities to an individual regardless of the level of a defendant’s participation in the charged offense, women have been exposed to increasingly punitive sentences to incarceration. (15) Low-level and mid-level drug offenders can be adequately prosecuted by the States and punished or supervised in treatment as appropriate. (16) The Departments of Justice, Treasury, and Homeland Security are the agencies with the greatest capacity to investigate,