Marijuana Arrests Skyrocket in California
By "Radical" Russ Belville
A new report from the Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice entitled “Misdemeanor Marijuana Arrests are Skyrocketing” is the latest piece of evidence to show that medical marijuana laws do not go far enough and the time for legalization is now.
In numerical terms, 20,800 Californians were arrested for misdemeanor possession of marijuana in 1990; 54,800 in 2010. Meanwhile, arrests for possession of all other illicit drugs, as well as for felony drug manufacture and sale, declined sharply. In 1990, simple marijuana possession comprised 8% of all drug arrests; in 2010, it comprised 22%.
Keep in mind that up until this year, when the decrim law signed by Gov. Schwarzenegger in late 2010 went into effect, possession of up to an ounce was a non-arrestable misdemeanor. So those arrests are possession of more than an ounce or “gift” of less than an ounce. Any sale or cultivation in California remains a felony.
That is, unless you are a medical marijuana patient. As California NORML estimates, there are between 750,000 and 1,125,000 medical marijuana patients in the state protected from arrest for possession, sale, and cultivation. This represents roughly 25% to 37.5% of the estimated 3,026,000 annual cannabis consumers in California aged 18 and older, according to the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use & Health(the most recent state numbers available).
Another way to look at it? Even as over one in four California pot smokers became “legal”, more than twice as many were being arrested for it. (I think this brings up an interesting question: when the cost of becoming “legal” is as low as $42 in some places and all you need to qualify is a complaint of sleeplessness to shop at the best weed markets in the world (albeit for $16-$17/gram), why are 3 out of 4 tokers not getting their recommendations?*)
In 1990, half of California’s marijuana possession arrestees were African-American, Latino, Asian, or other nonwhite and 35% were under age 20. In 2010, 64% were nonwhite and 52% were under age 20. Marijuana possession arrests of teenagers of color rose from 3,100 in 1990 to 16,400 in 2010 – an arrest surge 300% greater than population growth in that group.
Compared to Non-blacks, California’s African-American population are 4 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana, 12 times more likely to be imprisoned for a marijuana felony arrest, and 3 times more likely to be imprisoned per marijuana possession arrest. Overall, …these disparities accumulate to 10 times’ greater odds of an African-American being imprisoned for marijuana than other racial/ethnic groups.
It’s as it has always been – prohibition is a tool of racial discrimination and nothing about fifteen years of legal medical use has changed that.
As of June 30, 2011, 1,325 inmates in California prisons were serving sentences for marijuana offenses, including 1,224 imprisoned in 2010, both decreases from the previous year. Marijuana offenders—costing an average of $45,800 per year to imprison and serving an average of 13 months behind bars—cost the state $60 million in 2011.
So much for the notion that nobody really goes to prison for marijuana. Opponents will always couch that in terms of “non-violent first-time possession-only” because simple things like growing your own plant, keeping your weed in two separate baggies, owning a scale, or selling your friend a dime bag can all turn those misdemeanors into felonies and then into serious jail time.
* Because we are exceptionally honest people. Ask any cop.
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In fact the U.S. government health care programs into is not low, the annual total expenditure in GDP is about 15% in GDP, according to the world the first high value calculation, link:http://www.louboutinshoesuksale.co.uk/
Marijuana is a drug and people need to be responsible when using it. My 11 year old son tells me one of the girls in his school uses it, and has decided she will not dress for gym and is getting straight Fs in school. NORMLS website doesn't work. Coincidence? Smoke a fattie and tell me another story. I will tell you about people who lost good jobs due to pot. Doesn't really matter though, smoke two joints more. Harmless, now with the "Medical" everyone is pretty open about it here, with the hydroponic shops, glass pipes and supplemental lighting, smoke three joints cool. How unfair for kids to miss out on education because they were stoned.
You can thank the Prohibitionists who prefer having Black Market Dealers in charge of distribution for that story. If marijuana was legalized and regulated, no vendor would sell to a minor. Legalized marijuana would only be legal for adults.
We have a right to expect that our laws are based on logic and we have a right to expect that our laws create more good than harm. The federal marijuana prohibition FAILS on both these counts. Banning adult marijuana sales makes children LESS safe!
We have allowed the federal government to experiment with this policy for more than FORTY years now and it has NEVER worked! Instead of protecting children from marijuana, the prohibition makes marijuana MORE accessible to children by creating large profits for drug dealers where otherwise there would be NONE.
Just compare how hard it is to buy illegal alcohol with how easy it is to buy illegal marijuana and you see firsthand the effectiveness of alcohol legalization and the ineffectiveness of marijuana prohibition! WE are responsible for the safety of our children and WE have to insist that the federal government ENDS the ineffective prohibition of marijuana and instead regulate and taxes marijuana just as it currently does with beer and wine.
Times can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress.
Let's look at this through a "separation of church and state" lens: The 1st page & chapter of the Bible: Genesis 1:29 ...And God said "Behold I have given you(us) every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth..".. Now who other than Satan would want to criminalize or regulate God's 1st gift to us? Maybe that's why actual Bible reading on ones own is frowned upon by "authorities". For a historical account of how Biblical knowledge has been repressed, a must read is Foxes book of Martyrs: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22400/22400-h/22400-h.htm
If marijuana is made legal there will be no leverage for society to step in and intervene when it is destroying someone's life.
Liberalism is a mental disease.
For the most part, when you rely on "Society" to fix your problems, you create more problems! The only way marijuana could destroy someones life is have that someone get embroiled in a legal nature or get involved with killer, black market types!BTW, "Liberalism" brought us marijuanabprohibition. Thank the old Progressive, FDR for it. Dems and Reps, different pages from the same bad book! LEAP.cc NYPD, ret.
Well liberals need to government to help them live life. Obama is part of the reason why the feds are going after pot users relentlessly in California.
People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid. - Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Why don't the cops try going after "real" criminals, who commit real crimes, you know, the kind with "victims". Wasting all this time trying to fight a harmless plant...
It's time for an unbiased, scientific panel to present to the American people, and the rest of the world the US cajoled into making marijuana illegal, the actual FACTS about marijuana and an examination on why it became illegal. Propping up marijuana laws with lies and unproven "facts" has to stop. Not because people have a right to get "high" but because they deserve not to face incarceration and/or death because of laws conceived, born and nurtured out of racism, lies and greed. Present the unbiased truth and let the chips fall where they may! Dems and Reps, different pages from the same bad book! LEAP.cc NYPD, ret.