Cite as: 523 U. S. 511 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
mixtures containing" two controlled substances, namely, "cocaine . . . and cocaine base" (i. e., "crack"). App. 6. The District Judge instructed the jury that "the government must prove that the conspiracy . . . involved measurable amounts of cocaine or cocaine base." App. 16 (emphasis added). The jury returned a general verdict of guilty. And the judge imposed sentences based on his finding that each petitioner's illegal conduct had involved both cocaine and crack.
Petitioners argued (for the first time) in the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit that the judge's sentences were unlawful insofar as they were based upon crack. They said that the word "or" in the judge's instruction (permitting a guilty verdict if the conspiracy involved either cocaine or crack) meant that the judge must assume that the conspiracy involved only cocaine, which drug, they added, the Sentencing Guidelines treat more leniently than crack. See United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual § 2D1.1(c) (Nov. 1994) (drug table) (USSG). The Court of Appeals, however, held that the judge need not assume that only cocaine was involved. 105 F. 3d 1179 (1997). It pointed out that the Sentencing Guidelines require the sentencing judge, not the jury, to determine both the kind and the amount of the drugs at issue in a drug conspiracy. Id., at 1180. And it reasoned that the jury's belief about which drugs were involved—cocaine, crack, or both—was therefore beside the point. Id., at 1181. In light of a potential conflict among the Circuits on this question, see, e. g., United States v. Bounds, 985 F. 2d 188, 194-195 (CA5 1993); United States v. Pace, 981 F. 2d 1123 (CA10 1992); United States v. Owens, 904 F. 2d 411 (CA8 1990), we granted certiorari.
We agree that in the circumstances of this case the judge was authorized to determine for sentencing purposes whether crack, as well as cocaine, was involved in the offense-related activities. The Sentencing Guidelines instruct the judge in a case like this one to determine both the
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