This is such an important point that it really should be at the top. Just look at the punitive charges for crack vs cocaine: two very similar drugs, but consume

This is such an important point that it really should be at the top. Just look at the punitive charges for crack vs cocaine: two very similar drugs, but consumed by different demographics. Legislators, DAs, judges and police adjust their behavior when sentences feel out of whack with the crime. Unfortunately, that empathy goes out the window when the people in charge are sentencing "other" people, who they don't empathize with. Poor, uneducated people live by one set of laws, and middle-upper class people live by another set of laws.