Marijuana Arrests Driving America’s So-Called ‘Drug War,’ Latest FBI Data Shows

[tpsbmam]

Police made 853,838 arrests in 2010 for marijuana-related offenses, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. The arrest total is among the highest ever reported by the agency and is nearly identical to the total number of cannabis-related arrests reported in 2009.

According to the report, marijuana arrests now comprise more than one-half (52 percent) of all drug arrests in the United States. An estimated 46 percent of all drug arrests are for offenses related to marijuana possession.

“Today, as in past years, the so-called ‘drug war’ remains fueled by the arrests of minor marijuana possession offenders, a disproportionate percentage of whom are ethnic minorities,” NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said in a prepared statement. “It makes no sense to continue to waste law enforcements’ time and taxpayers’ dollars to arrest and prosecute Americans for their use of a substance that poses far fewer health risks than alcohol or tobacco.”

Of those charged with marijuana law violations, 750,591 (88 percent) were arrested for marijuana offenses involving possession only. The remaining 103,247 individuals were charged with “sale/manufacture,” a category that includes virtually all cultivation offenses.

The rest of the blog post is at NORML.

(emphases all in original blog post)


How pathetic. Talk about a waste of resources and wasted potential tax money from legalizing and taxing cannabis! That's in addition to the people who've been prosecuted & have records because of marijuana.....we have war criminals, larcenists who brought down the world economy & all kinds of political/corporate/Wall Street sociopaths running free and we give criminal records to pot users, cultivators who are licensed to grow medical marijuana, those who grow it for personal use.....what a fucked up country we live in.

[Tsiyu]

1. The War on a Plant is a money hole for communities

and a waste of productive lives in many cases - but a HUGE windfall for people who do far worse things than smoke pot.


Sad

[diane in sf]

2. Only privatized prison lobbyists could justify locking up pot users.

[Fumesucker]

3. Judges, prosecutors, police, prison guards, criminal defense lawyers, drug testers....

The list is pretty damn long of those who profit on the "right" side of the law.

[HereSince1628]

8. Don't forget companies that use prison labor...

[Uncle Joe]

4. The only war being fought is against the American People whether you smoke cannabis or not.

The "War Against Drugs" is nothing but counterproductive, dysfunctional, greed based and corruptive institutional insanity.

There is no common sense, moral or logical reason for turning what should be an educational, personal privacy and medical issue into a criminal one which only serves to alienate and disenfranchise vast swaths of the American People from their representative government.

Thanks for the thread, tpsbmam.

[L. Coyote]

5. America's Race War: "a disproportionate percentage of whom are ethnic minorities"

The real reasons behind the drug war? How many minority voters disenfranchised so far?

[mike_c]

6. and yet in my community marijuana possession, use, and cultivation...

...are more-or-less open and public. I smoke marijuana sitting on my back porch, in a small rural town but a town nonetheless-- I have neighbors on all sides. I purchase it from my neighbors (not my next door neighbors, but others in my community) who grow it in their homes and outdoors. There are half a dozen legal (state law) dispensaries within 25 miles of my house. Most of my friends smoke pot regularly or at least occasionally.

I live in northern California, a medical marijuana state. Marijuana is the basis of the local economy-- not just part of it, but its foundation. The district attorneys in my county and adjacent counties have publicly announced that they have no interest in prosecuting marijuana possession cases. People smoke openly in parks and in public places, where they risk little more than a misdemeanor citation or, more usually, criticism from folks around them for lighting up and producing second hand smoke.

[Admiral Loinpresser]

7. Obama's War on Poverty n/t

n/t

[SteveM]

9. Take a look at the Clinton years. nt

[Admiral Loinpresser]

10. Strongly agree.

Slick Willie also gave us welfare "reform."

But at least he was progressive on tax policy. He had some redeeming qualities, as opposed to Obama.

[CrispyQ]

11. Trust the leaf.

Some natural food company has that as their logo. ;)

A clever DUer came up with this as a reminder that it was once legal:



:thumbsup: :thumbsup: