New FBI Report: Savage U.S. Marijuana War Continues, Despite Majority Support for Re-Legalization
(From the Intellectual Ammunition section in Volume 19, No. 20 of the Liberator Online. Subscribe here!)
A solid majority of Americans now favor re-legalizing marijuana. Many states have eased laws persecuting marijuana smokers, and four states and the District of Columbia have even re-legalized it.
Yet governments at all levels continue to wage a costly, pointless, and ferocious war against peaceful marijuana users.
In early November the FBI released its annual Uniform Crime Report, which gives the best look at marijuana arrests and related statistics. It covers the latest year for which figures are available, 2013.
Among the findings:
- The good news: arrest numbers are down, slightly. In 2013, there were 693,481 arrests for marijuana charges. In 2012, there were 749,825. However, despite years of growing support for re-legalization, there were actually fewer arrests back in 1998 (682,885).
- As always, the vast majority of these arrests — a whopping 88% — were for simple possession.
- The remaining 12% of arrests were for “sale/manufacture,” a broad category that includes all cultivation offenses — even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use.
- Marijuana arrests make up 40.6% of all drug arrests, making it clear that the War on Drugs is, in reality, largely a War on Marijuana Possession.
- Nationwide, police make an average of one arrest for marijuana possession every minute.
- Nationwide, 51.9% of violent crimes and over 80% of property crimes went unsolved or did not result in arrest. Is there a connection?
- Arrests for mere possession of marijuana cost, at a minimum, roughly half a billion dollars, says NORML, using an ACLU estimate of cost-per-arrest ($750). Other estimates range to several billion dollars.
- The effects of an arrest can be devastating, notes Paul Armentano of NORML:
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