Pot Arrests for Year 2008 Second Highest Total Ever Reported
Police arrested 847,864 persons for marijuana violations in 2008, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. The total marks a three percent decrease in marijuana arrests from 2007, when law enforcement arrested a record 872,721 Americans for cannabis-related violations, but still remains the second highest tally of annual arrests ever reported.
Marijuana arrests now comprise one-half (49.8 percent) of all drug arrests reported in the United States.
Of those charged with marijuana violations, approximately 89 percent, 754,224 Americans were charged with possession only. The remaining 93,640 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation offenses, even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use.
Marijuana arrests were highest in the Midwest and southern regions of the United States, and lowest in the west, despite this region possessing some of the nation's highest rates of cannabis use.
Commenting on the 2008 figures, NORML Director Allen St. Pierre said:
Federal statistics released just last week indicate that larger percentages of Americans are using cannabis at the same time that police are arresting a near-record number of Americans for pot-related offenses. Present enforcement policies are costing American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, ruining the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, and having no impact on marijuana availability or marijuana use in this country. It is time to end this failed policy and replace prohibition with a policy of marijuana regulation, taxation, and education.
NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano, author of the book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? (Chelsea Green, 2009) added:
According to a just-released Rasmussen poll, a majority of American adults believe, correctly, that marijuana is less harmful than booze. The public has it right; the law has it wrong.To read the FBI's 2008 Uniform Crime Report, please visit here.
While I support many restrictions on public smoking, such as at restaurants and workplaces, I believe the outdoor smoking ban and prohibition of cloves will lead to harmful and unintended consequences.
Jessica Corry and Robert J. Corry, Jr.: Pot Wars: A Bipartisan Failure
Democrats calculate they will have nothing to gain by legalizing. Republicans fear angering a socially conservative base of voters all too eager to forget its beer-bonging college days.
Tony Newman: Marijuana in America: More Mainstream Than Ever, More Arrests Than Ever!
Need more evidence that marijuana has gone mainstream in America? This morning on The Today Show, Matt Lauer chatted up a piece on so-called "Stiletto Stoners:" educated, professional women who favor marijuana as their intoxicant of choice -- and are increasingly comfortable admitting it.
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I've been reading the 9/11 Commission report and in sections 3.2 - 3.4 it outlines how prior to 2001 the majority of federal resources (CIA, INS, FBI, DEA) were devoted to protecting the border and seizing drugs - domestic terrorism was barely on the radar at all.
Not to say that 9/11 could have been prevented regardless of the amount of resources available, but it begs the question - what are our priorities? Is any analysis or internal review being done with regard to drug laws in this country? We seem to be stuck in this mode of pissing on the fire - spending $50B a year to fight drug traffickers yet stopping less and less from coming into this country each year (2%< according to INS estimates).
You can get herion, cocaine, weed, and meth in AMERICAN PRISONS - wtf are we doing? When will the pols find the spine to revamp this nonsense, allow Americans the drugs they desire (we sell alcohol, tobacco, and legal herion (oxycotin) everyday anyway)... pure insanity
The criminalization of drugs as a problem solution has turned the US into the world's leading prison country now and of all time. There are about 5.7 million Americans locked up in jail with about 60% there on drug charges. The current drug enforcement agencies have grown into their own special interest group demanding higher pay, better benefits and more jobs. It's called the Prison-Industrial complex and is self-serving with its own interests to protect and extend. It is a Mad Hatters Tea Party with no end in sight.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this is a Government perpetuated racket. Take 754,224 people arrested for simple pot possession, times $5,000, the avg. legal expense for the victim. That generates $3.7 billion in revenue just for lawyers, not to mention, prison revenues, police, judges, etc. Additionally, there is no other illegal activity that generates the kind of cash that drugs do. It gives the CIA the ability to fund covert operations "off the books" like the Iran Contra thing 20 years ago. You think this kind of stuff has stopped? Think again. There are way too many advantages to the Government (local, state, federal) to make drugs legal.
I'll give you my weed when you take it from my stoned numb hands. Get on with the real problems at hand.
Do you have some figures on the legal and social costs (police time, arrests, prosecutions, incarceration, linkage/involvement to other criminal activity, etc.) to the taxpayer that we can include in the discussion? I'd also like to see this issue compared and contrasted with other behaviors such as alcohol consumption and tobacco use which have no known health benefits as well as the economic contribution hemp (renewable) would have vs. petroleum based synthetic materials (non-renewable), fuels and other ingredients for product manufacturing. It's long overdue that we make a comprehensive argument for the decriminalization, legalization, regulation and taxation of all Cannabis-related cultivars and products.
Yes, We Can America:
A) save what’s left of our forests,
B) ease the suffering of chemotherapy patients, and
C) create desperately needed revenue streams for American communities during their time of greatest need.
See how much our US Cities, States, Country and households could save on taxes if Marijuana were decriminalized:
MarijuanaLobby.org
Change we can engage in...
What is even more troubling are the continued Federal attacks on medical marijuana dispensaries in California, in spite of Obama's campaign promises, and AG Holder's claim that dispensaries which follow state laws would not be a target. The weight of untold suffering of those denied this safe, effective, and (were it generally legal) low cost medicine is squarely on the souls (if they indeed have them) of unrepentant drug warriors.
We could be using these dollars for something useful, like partially funding health care.
Pssst: It's a plant.
Great song. Embarassing statistics. Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVkk6fH2u0Y&feature=player_embedded
Is it because alchohol just dumbs us down? Is it because the for-profit prisons need inmates? Is there any logical reason for our legal attitude about marijuana?
It goes back to the debates at the time of the 1914 Harrison Narcotics Tax Act. Most arguments were about the effects of opiates on african-americans and how they'd attack white women in a drug induced craze. Leading to a long trend of racist based drug policy.
It also didn't help that there was a Great Awakening of sorts that empowered a lot of little old ladies and itinerant preachers to tell the entire nation what they could and couldn't ingest because God would be disappointed.
WE'RE NUMBER ONE!!!!
It sure feels good to have something to be proud of for a change, but it's a little sad that drug prohibition has to cause more harm than drug use does.
On the other hand, if we legalize, how are we going to keep all of those new prisons full?
oldpotsmuggler: " On the other hand, if we legalize, how are we going to keep all of those new prisons full?"
Easy. If Health Care Reform fails, we'll need the space as debtors' prisons.
It's illegal right? The President has said he doesn't support legalization. The cops are doing their job. I say bravo!
What is their job? To allow 98% of all drug shipments to enter the country? INS says they stop less than 2%, and nearly half of all drug arrests are for marijuana possession. Is weed really a plague that deserves a $25B budget to fight? Come on... lets put that money toward improving our schools, drug education and rehab, etc. There are literally hundreds of better uses of our tax dollars than putting stoners behind bars... WAKE UP - USE YOUR HEAD!
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