FBI-786,545 Pots arrests in 2005

[Pinch]

2005: Record High Marijuana Arrests

Police in the United States made a record number of arrests in 2005 according to the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report. The 786,545 people arrested for marijuana violations made up 42.6 percent of all drug arrests, and more arrests the total number for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, and rape, robbery and assault.

As you might expect, NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre has something to say about that:

"These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre, who noted that at current rates, a marijuana smoker is arrested every 40 seconds in America. "This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources that diverts law enforcement personnel away from focusing on serious and violent crime, including the war on terrorism."

This begs the question: How many of these people were using marijuana for medical reasons? St. Pierre also says marijuana arrests have doubled since 1990, while ****** and ******* arrests have declined sharply.

St. Pierre concluded: "Enforcing marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers between $10 billion and $12 billion annually and has led to the arrest of nearly 18 million Americans. Nevertheless, some 94 million Americans acknowledge having used marijuana during their lives. It makes no sense to continue to treat nearly half of all Americans as criminals for their use of a substance that poses no greater - and arguably far fewer - health risks than alcohol or tobacco. A better and more sensible solution would be to tax and regulate cannabis in a manner similar to alcohol and tobacco."

That is 80 people / hour busted for pot..

A little more than one person / minute..





Posted by Wiredblogs at 7:38 AM PDT | Post Comment | View Comments (3) | Permalink
http://blog.wired.com/biotech/index....try_id=1559124

[qWERTY]

What a waste of money.

[bigfanofpj]

if we could just spend that money on GROWING, well then that would be sweet.