WASHINGTON — The most exhaustive
collection of data ever on U.S.
marijuana arrests, penalties and related
information,
released today, finds no relationship between marijuana
arrest and
use rates, while penalty structures act as a price
support mechanism that
boosts the
illegal market. Assembled by Jon Gettman, Adjunct Assistant
Professor in Criminal Justice at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia,
the new report finds:
-- Marijuana arrests have nearly doubled since 1991, while levels of
marijuana use remained fundamentally
unchanged.
-- Penalties that escalate for increased amounts
of marijuana encourage consumers to make multiple small purchases, acting as a
price support for the illicit market.
-- Florida has the nation’s harshest marijuana
penalties, while the District of Columbia has the highest arrest rate for
marijuana offenses.
-- Although the rate of marijuana use is only
about 25 percent higher for African-
Americans than for whites, blacks are three
times as likely to be
arrested for marijuana possession as whites.
“These figures paint a devastating portrait of a failed policy that burns
through tax dollars while doing nothing but harm,” said Rob Kampia, executive
director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. “Most
Americans agree that marijuana prohibition doesn’t work, even if most
politicians aren’t yet ready to publicly agree with their constituents.”
Gettman’s summary report, “Marijuana Arrests in the United States (2007),” is
available at
http://www.drugscience.org/Archive/bcr7/bcr7_index.html.
The full Marijuana Policy Almanac, including state rankings and individual
reports for all 50 states plus the District of Columbia, is at
http://www.drugscience.org/States/US/US_home.htm.
Please select the category that most closely reflects your concern about this content, so that we can review it and determine whether it violates Civility 101 or isn't appropriate for some other reason.
Abusing this feature is also a violation of Civility 101.
Explanation:
RESEARCH: New Research Shows Marijuana Arrests have Doubled Since 1991
Thank You for your Comment
We review all comments before they're posted. For more on our comment policy, please see our FAQ.
Fuiture arrests
But we are not at war . At least that is what the government is trying too say.
But unless they legalize marijuana ,the arrests will double again in the next ten years,half the time that it took since it doubled this time
because more people are using marijuana than even they know about..
If the arrests continue and they continue imprisoning marijuana users,the prison system will have too grow even more than it is now,
or they are going to have a very crowded condition,so crowded that there may be cases of sodomy where neither party was consenting.
Isn't it just amazing that with all our technology and control of our banking industry,that the cartels still manage to take billions of
untaxed dollars out of America. It is almost like someone is letting them or maybe they are paying taxes ,sort of.
They will never be able too convince me that they are removing it a suitcase at a time over the border,either border.
And now that Canada is listed as a contributing country to our marijuana market,will we have too pay their army to take out their cartels? It is costing us 1.4 billion in Mexico,where even the soldiers are cheap labor ,so how much is the tab going to be for us to go after the cartels in their country. Since Canada is a little more aware of people having some rights,as opposed to Mexico's
system of might is right.
All we hear about are the people the cartels are killing,the numbers killed by the Mexican army are probably just as numerous as the cartels are,but since Mexico truly controls their press,we will never know.
Since Canada does have a free press,they won't be able to hide any death squads they form up to fight the Canadian cartels.
- Clay
November 5, 2009 6:46PM
Reply to this Recommend (0)
Thank You for your Comment
We review all comments before they're posted. For more on our comment policy, please see our FAQ.