Washington, DC: 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.

Marijuana arrests now comprised 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.

The 2008 marijuana arrest total is the second highest annual total ever reported.

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 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.”

I’m pleased to see that the political left is finally beginning to emphasize the tragedy that is marijuana prohibition. Truth is: it is impossible in this day and age to talk about social justice, civil liberties, and economic equality without calling for an end to the “war on (some) drugs.”

20 Million Arrests, and Counting
via In These Times

Since the early ’90s, the total number of Americans busted annually for pot has nearly tripled. … Yet despite this massive increase in arrests … the mass media and Congress continue to ignore the story.

… Equally troubling yet seldom discussed publicly is the reality that marijuana enforcement disproportionately affects citizens by age. According to data compiled by the FBI, 74 percent of all Americans busted for pot are under 30. One out of four is 18 or younger.

We now have a generation (or two) that is so alienated that many young people believe the police are an instrument of their oppression rather than their protection.

While young people suffer the most under current anti-pot laws, they lack the financial means and political capital to influence politicians to challenge them.

As a result, marijuana arrests continue to climb unabated. And few in the mainstream press — and even fewer lawmakers — feel any sufficient political pressure to address it.

Please take a moment to comment (free registration required) on NORML’s essay, and encourage the editors of In These Times to expand their drug war coverage.

Also, please consider registering for NORML’s 2008 annual Conference — taking place October 17-20 in Berkeley, California — where experts from around the nation will discuss, in depth, the staggering number of cannabis arrests and the disproportionate impact these arrests have on youth. Discount pricing is still available, but not for long.

See you in Berkeley!

For the third consecutive year, pot arrests are up in the city of Denver. Why is this news? It’s news because Denver voters have twice since 2005 passed municipal initiatives ordering the cops to stop making minor pot busts. Yet, as the New York Times reports, local cops have chosen to do just the opposite — with the city’s assistant attorney bragging, “There has not been a policy change.”

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