News

Dazed and Confused 

 

First the good news. The total number of people arrested in the U.S. for breaking cannabis laws declined for the first time in four years.

Now the really bad news. Arrests for marijuana violations outpaced arrests for ALL violent crimes put together, according to data from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI’s report showed police arrested 545,602 people for cannabis-related crimes in 2019, which is 9 percent higher than the 495,871 people arrested for violent crimes. And the charges? Well, 92 percent of the cannabis arrests were for simple possession.

A recent report from the ACLU found that black people were 3.6 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than white people. And in Montana, which is voting on legalization in less than two weeks, Black people were about 9.5 percent more likely to be arrested.