Pubdate: Sun, 09 Jun 2013
Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH)
Copyright: 2013 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.dispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/93
Author: Suzanne Gamboa, Associated Press

BLACKS MORE LIKELY TO GET BUSTED FOR MARIJUANA

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 last week, found 
that marijuana-arrest rates for blacks were 3.73 times greater than 
those for whites nationally in 2010. In some counties, the arrest 
rate was 10 to 30 times greater for blacks. In two Alabama counties, 
everyone arrested for marijuana possession was black, the ACLU said.

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

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

Blacks were arrested at a rate of 537 per 100,000 people nationally 
in 2001. By 2010, their arrest rate had jumped to 716 per 100,000. 
The 2001 rate for white people was 191 per 100,00 and it edged up 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 - than were blacks, 286,117.

Ezekiel Edwards, lead author of the ACLU study, attributed the 
disparate arrest rates to racial profiling by police.

"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.

Police operate from the standpoint that "the use of marijuana is a 
crime," said Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal 
Order of Police.

The largest disparities were found in: Iowa, where blacks were 8.34 
times more likely to be arrested than whites; Washington, D.C., 8.05 
times greater; Minnesota, 7.81 times; Illinois, 7.56; Wisconsin, 
5.98; Kentucky, 5.95 and Pennsylvania, 5.19.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom