Pubdate: Wed, 05 Jun 2013
Source: Texarkana Gazette (TX)
Copyright: 2013 The Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.texarkanagazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/976

ACLU STUDY: MARIJUANA ARRESTS ARE MORE LIKELY FOR BLACKS

WASHINGTON (AP)- Black people are arrested for possessing marijuana 
at a higher rate than white people, even though marijuana use by both 
races is about the same, the American Civil Liberties Union reports 
in a new study.

The ACLU's analysis of federal crime data, released Tuesday, found 
marijuana arrest rates for black people were 3.73 times greater than 
those for white people nationally in 2010. In some counties, the 
arrest rate was 10 to 30 times greater for blacks. In two Alabama 
counties, 100 percent of those arrested for marijuana possession were 
black, the ACLU said.

When it comes to marijuana use, about 14 percent of black people and 
12 percent of white people reported in 2010 that they had used the 
drug during the previous year, according to data that the ACLU 
obtained from the National Drug Health Survey, a Health and Human 
Services publication. Among younger people ages 18-25, use was 
greater among whites.

An overall increase in marijuana possession arrests from 2001 to 2010 
is largely attributable to drastic increases in arrests of black 
people, the ACLU said.

Blacks were arrested at a rate of 537 per 100,000 people nationally 
in 2001. In 2010, their arrest rate rose to 716 per 100,000. The 2001 
number for white people was 191 per 100,00 and rose to 192 per 
100,000 in 2010, the ACLU said. Despite the disparate rates, far more 
whites were arrested for marijuana possession in 2010, 460,808 
compared to blacks, 286,117.

Ezekiel Edwards, lead author of the ACLU study, attributed the 
disparate arrest rates to racial profiling by police seeking to pad 
their arrest numbers with "low-level" arrests in "certain communities 
that they have kind of labeled as problematic."

"While this country moves in some ways in a more progressive 
direction on marijuana policy in a lot of places, in other places, 
people are getting handcuffed, jailed and getting criminal records at 
racially disparate rates all around the country," Edwards said.
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