The FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2008 has been released today and the numbers provide us with a few good news / bad news scenarios to report.

Marijuana Arrests 1990-2008

Good news: Marijuana arrests have declined from the previous year.  For the first time since 2002 (and only the 5th time since 1990), there were fewer marijuana arrests in America than the previous year.  Last year, there were 872,721 arrests for marijuana*; this year the figure has dropped to 847,864, a decline of 2.85%.

Bad news: There were 847,864 arrests for marijuana last year, the second-highest total of marijuana arrests ever recorded.  This is two-and-a-half times more arrests for pot than in 1990.  There were more pot arrests than people living in South Dakota.

Good news:  This year, arrests for “drug abuse violations” declined overall, from 1.84 million in 2007 to 1.70 million in 2008.  The proportion of drug arrests to all arrests also dropped, from 13% of all arrests in 2007 to 12.2% of all arrests in 2008.

Half of the "War on Drugs" is a War on Marijuana

Bad news: The number of marijuana arrests as a proportion of all “drug abuse violation” arrests increased from 47% to 49.8% – half of all drug arrests are for selling, manufacturing, or possessing marijuana.  In the Midwest and South, over half of all drug abuse violation arrests were just for possession of marijuana.

Good news: Police seem to be doing a better job on violent crime.  In 2008, here were only 2,500 fewer arrests for homicide, rape, robbery, and assault than 2007.  There were fewer incidents of violent crime in 2008 (1.22 million in 2007, 1.20 million in 2008) and better clearance of violent crimes (44.5% led to arrest in 2007, 45.1% led to arrest in 2008).

Bad news: 89% of all the marijuana arrests were for possession only, meaning there were 754,224 arrests for personal use of marijuana, not selling or cultivating.  The arrests for sales or cultivation of marijuana that make up 11% of all marijuana arrests include those who were growing their own for personal use and medical marijuana grows.  By comparison, there were only 594,911 arrests for the 1.22 million violent crimes committed in America.

Good news: While the number of adults who admit using marijuana in the past year increased by half a million, from 22 million in 2007 to 22.5 million in 2008, the number of arrests for marijuana declined by almost 25,000.  This means now there are 37.46 arrests-per-1000-annual-tokers in 2008 vs. 39.67 in 2007.  This works out to one marijuana arrest every 37 seconds in 2008, rather than every 36 seconds in 2007.

Bad news: The percentage of people under age 18 arrested for “drug abuse violations” remains unchanged at 10.6% of all drug arrests.

*Trying to break the habit of writing “842,864 people arrested”, because these arrests figures could include one person who was arrested multiple times.

Related posts

• Who Are You? US Government Statistics on Adult Marijuana Users (8)
• Who Are You III: Workin’ like a Dog – Employment Statistics on Marijuana Users (2)
• Who Are You II: Industrious & Smart – More SAMHDA Stats on Adult Marijuana Users (1)

(LA Times) According to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice (CJCJ), the arrest rate for all offenses in California sank by 40% from 1990 to 2008, with arrests for rape and murder falling by more than 60% each. Drug possession arrests for everything but marijuana collectively fell by nearly 30% in the same period. Meanwhile, arrests for marijuana possession have skyrocketed — up 127%. This rise in marijuana arrests is the ultimate outlier.

California made a major step toward decriminalizing low-level pot possession in 1975, when it made possession of less than an ounce a misdemeanor punishable with a fine and no jail time. That didn’t stop law enforcement from arresting more than 74,000 people last year — the highest number since the 1975 law took effect. More than 80% of those arrests were for misdemeanor possession, the lowest-level offense.

Not surprisingly, given the way drug laws are traditionally enforced in this country, the burden has fallen disproportionately on people of color, and on young black men in particular. According to the CJCJ, half of California’s marijuana possession arrestees were nonwhite in 1990 and 28% were under age 20. Last year, 62% were nonwhite and 42% were under age 20. Marijuana possession arrests of youth of color rose from about 3,100 in 1990 to about 16,300 in 2008 — an arrest surge 300% greater than the rate of population growth in that group.

Even more disturbing, African Americans account for an even higher portion of all marijuana felony arrests. Blacks make up less than 7% of the state population but 22% of people arrested for all marijuana offenses and 33% of all marijuana felony arrests. More African Americans are arrested in California for marijuana felonies than are whites, even though whites are six times more represented in the state population.

The overrepresentation of African Americans is not explained by use rates. According to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the percentage of African Americans and whites who use marijuana over any 30-day period are similar. However, for the 18-25 age group — which constitutes a substantial proportion of marijuana arrests — African Americans regularly use marijuana at rates lower than whites (16.5% and 18.4%, respectively), indicating that their overrepresentation may be even more profound.

These statistics would be shocking if one wasn’t aware of the roots of marijuana prohibition.  It has always been about harassing and controlling the “undesirable” populations from the moment the first anti-Mexican immigrant pot prohibitions were passed a century ago in El Paso.  The term “marihuana” itself is Mexican slang, used to give the innocuous-sounding hemp plant a more evil-sounding name.  As black jazz musicians popularized marijuana use in the ’20s and ’30s, yellow journalist William Randolph Hearst and first “drug czar” Harry J. Anslinger were quick to leverage racism in their demonization of a plant:

“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others. … Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.” — Harry J. Anslinger, America’s 1st Drug Czar (FDR – JFK)

“Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. Hasheesh makes a murderer who kills for the love of killing out of the mildest mannered man who ever laughed at the idea that any habit could ever get him…. Marihuana influences Negroes to to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice.” — William Randolph Hearst, Newspaper Tycoon (1936)

Lest you think that kind of talk died out after Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement of the ’60s, check out President Nixon’s rationalization for the War on Drugs, first from the Nixon Tapes, and second as explained to Chief of Staff, H. R. Haldeman (from Halderman’s diaries):

“I want a Goddamn strong statement on marijuana, I mean one that just tears the ass out of them. You know, it’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish…. You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this all while not appearing to.” — Richard M. Nixon, Former US President

Related posts

• States ponder early release for prisoners (6)
• California sees nearly 75,000 marijuana arrests in 2007 (0)
• Zogby Poll: Nearly 6 in 10 on West Coast favor marijuana legalization (3)

Well lookee what I’ve gone and made. It’s a handy-dandy 160×300 widget to display on your blog, MySpace, or Facebook that shows you how much we are wasting in our insane crusade against a plant.

Related posts

• Widgets! We gots Widgets! (0)
• States ponder early release for prisoners (6)
• Nationwide marijuana arrests down for first time since 2002, but still 2nd highest arrest total ever (5)

A new study looks at the increased arrest of marijuana smokers in New York City and the increase in marijuana smokers seeking treatment, and comes to a conclusion only a hardened drug warrior like Dr. Kevin Sabet could make:

In the mid-late 1990s Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Police Chief William Bratton focused on arresting and detaining people for crimes that contributed to a lower “quality-of-life” in New York City. This aggressive arrest policy (AAP) resulted in a record growth in marijuana arrests. In 1992, the number of marijuana arrests was around 5,000. By 2000, the arrest rate hit an all-time high of about 60,000 (the large majority of which were for misdemeanor arrests in both years). Through a triangulation of data sources, including the Uniform Crime Reports and the Treatment Episode Data Set from 1992 to 2003, and other published accounts, this paper shows that entries into treatment for marijuana dramatically increased in New York City at the same time as misdemeanor and felony arrests for marijuana also rose. 

via Marijuana Treatment Entries Did Not Decrease After Aggressive Arrest Policies Were Implemented in New York City.

Good so far, right?  Matches up nicely with that graph there showing that 1992-2000, marijuana arrests increased 1000% and so did court referrals for marijuana “treatment”.  After 9/11 as arrests declined, referrals began to decline.  Shows what we’ve been saying for a while now, that few people actually seek professional drug rehab for marijuana alone; most are forced into it after being arrested for marijuana possession.

Well, not to Dr. Kevin Sabet:

While it is unclear if these arrests caused the treatment increase (vis-à-vis criminal justice referral programs), the presence of these two phenomena show that policy regimes of increased treatment and increased law enforcement actions can co-exist. The oft-heard phrase “treatment versus law enforcement” may represent a false dichotomy in drug policy analysis.

Unclear?!?  You think 1000% more pot smokers just up and decided they were marijuana “addicts” and voluntarily sought treatment?  Could this paper get any sillier?  (Yes.  Yes it can.)

Read the rest of this entry by clicking here

Related posts

• 2007 Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) Marijuana Stats (4)
• The Failed Border Security Initiative – A Crackdown Compounded (0)
• The Economist: “Prohibition has failed; legalization is the least bad solution” (4)

States ponder early release for prisoners – Economy in Turmoil- msnbc.com
NEW YORK – Their budgets in crisis, governors, legislators and prison officials across the nation are making or considering policy changes that will likely remove tens of thousands of offenders from prisons and parole supervision.

In California, faced with a projected $42 billion deficit and prison overcrowding that has triggered a federal lawsuit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to eliminate parole for all offenders not convicted of violent or sex-related crimes, reducing the parole population by about 70,000. He also wants to divert more petty criminals to county jails and grant early release to more inmates — steps that could trim the prison population by 15,000 over the next 18 months.

In Kentucky, where the inmate population had been soaring, even some murderers and other violent offenders are benefiting from a temporary cost-saving program that has granted early release to nearly 2,000 inmates.

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine is proposing early release of about 1,000 inmates. New York Gov. David Paterson wants early release for 1,600 inmates as well as an overhaul of the so-called Rockefeller Drug Laws that impose lengthy mandatory sentences on many nonviolent drug offenders.

Here’s an idea: how about you stop arresting so many of those non-violent drug offenders in the first place?  Based on the numbers from the FBI Uniform Crime Report for 2007:

• California arrested 289,449 people for drugs
• Kentucky arrested 11,883 people for drugs
• Virginia arrested 32,941 people for drugs
• New York arrested 61,163 people for drugs

Now if it is too scary to think about not arresting the users of all illegal drugs, let’s narrow it down to cannabis.  The FBI didn’t give me state-level breakdowns of cannabis arrests, but nationwide cannabis accounts for 47% of all drug arrests.  For the four states mentioned, that’s 185,854 cannabis arrests, and since 89% of those are possession-only arrests, that’s 165,410 otherwise law-abiding pot smokers arrested – not growers, traffickers, or dealers, just tokers.

To be fair, most of these 165,410 don’t spend much more than their booking time in a jail.  But it still takes time, money, and space to prosecute them and that begins to add up.  If these four states mentioned just taxed and regulated cannabis like Jagermeister, combined they’d raise $1.9 billion every year.  That wouldn’t completely solve these states’ budget crises, but it sure would keep a few more actual criminals behind bars.

Related posts

• States looking to increase alcohol revenue during budget crisis (1)
• Cannabis Civil Rights (10)
• California crime stats show crime dropping, but marijuana arrests skyrocketing (1)

California sees nearly 75,000 marijuana arrests in 2007 – Times-Standard Online
The nearly 75,000 marijuana-related arrests in California last year are prompting marijuana law reform activists to say that laws aren’t stopping people from getting what they want, while local law enforcement responds that the increased number of arrests is simply the result of tighter enforcement.

According to the state Department of Justice’s Criminal Justice Statistics Center, 74,119 felony and misdemeanor marijuana arrests were made in 2007, a jump of nearly 10,000 arrests from 2006, which saw 65,386.

Between 2001 and 2006, the differences from year to year were much smaller.

In Humboldt County alone, more people are getting arrested, and more of those arrested are getting charged with serious crimes.

The number of marijuana-related arrests in Humboldt nearly doubled between 2006 and 2007, jumping from 564 to 971. In 2006, 138 people were charged with marijuana felonies, while in 2007 that number ballooned to 550. Meanwhile, the number of marijuana misdemeanors between the two years has stayed roughly the same.

[California NORML's Dale] Gieringer said the statewide numbers are the highest since 1990, which he says is a sign that these arrests are only wasting taxpayer money.

Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos said while there may be some legitimate reasons to legalize marijuana, increased arrests is not one of them.

”I don’t think the increased arrest is any indication that this needs to be legalized,” he said. “It’s no more than if murder went up that we should legalize murder.”

Yes, because growing marijuana for adults who want it is just like taking someone’s life.  Pot farming is a lot like murder.  Yeah, that’s it.

It’s like arguing with junior high school kids sometimes.  ”Well, if all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?  Huh?”  Well, I don’t know.  Do my friends all survive?  Is it a bridge over a lake?  Who knows, maybe they all die and I’m so distraught I jump off the bridge, too.  Are we really going to have a meaningful conversation if you’re hypothesizing about mass bridge suicides or comparing breaking pot laws to killing people?

I’ve heard this argument from actual adults, that you don’t legalize marijuana just because it’s impossible to stamp out, any more than you don’t legalize rape because it’s impossible to stamp out, that just because people will always commit a certain crime, that doesn’t mean you stop punishing people for it.

Where this argument fails the common sense test is that rational people can understand that there are crimes of the “broke a rule” category and crimes of the “sins against humanity” category.  Nobody really needs a written statute to understand that murder, rape, and robbery are crimes of the “sin” category – you are directly harming another and there is an identifiable victim.

Read the rest of this entry by clicking here

Related posts

• States ponder early release for prisoners (6)
• LA Times: The Racism of Marijuana Prohibition (0)
• Zogby Poll: Nearly 6 in 10 on West Coast favor marijuana legalization (3)

Record number of Americans arrested for marijuana

The FBI has released its annual report on Crime in the United States 2007.  Once again, the number of people in the United States arrested for marijuana has gone up.  872,721 Americans were arrested for marijuana in 2007, and of those arrests, 89% or 775,138 were arrests for simple possession – not buying, selling, trafficking, or manufacture (growing).

This represents an increase in marijuana arrests of 5.2% from the previous year and the fifth straight year marijuana arrests have increased from the previous year.  Now a marijuana smoker is arrested at the rate of 1 every 37 seconds and almost 100 marijuana arrests per hour.

Read the rest of this entry by clicking here

Related posts

• States ponder early release for prisoners (6)
• NORML Marijuana Arrests Widget (7)
• Nationwide marijuana arrests down for first time since 2002, but still 2nd highest arrest total ever (5)