Marijuana Arrests Set All-Time Record
September 15, 2008
Arrests for Marijuana Possession Exceed All Violent Crimes Combined
(Washington, D.C.) Continuing the recent trend, marijuana arrests set another all-time record in 2007, totaling 872,720. Arrests for marijuana possession totaled 775,138, greatly exceeding arrests for all violent crimes combined, which totaled 597,447.
- The number greatly exceeds the 829,627 marijuana arrests in 2006, which itself was an all-time record.
- Arrests for illicit drugs other than marijuana declined in 2007 by over 84,000 compared to 2006.
“Most Americans have no idea of the massive effort going into a war on marijuana users that has completely failed to curb marijuana use,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. “Just this summer a new World Health Organization study of 17 countries found that we have the highest rate of marijuana use, despite some of the strictest marijuana laws and hyper-aggressive enforcement.
“With government at all levels awash in debt, this is an insane waste of resources. If we regulated and taxed marijuana as we do beer, wine, and cigarettes, we could save tens of billions of dollars, better control marijuana’s production and distribution, and cut off a huge source of funding to criminal gangs.”
Bizarrely, at his recent press conference announcing new drug use survey data, White House drug czar John Walters stated, “We didn’t arrest 800,000 marijuana users,” and called that figure, when raised by MPP’s Aaron Houston and Dan Bernath, a “lie.”
With more than 25,000 members and 100,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit http://MarijuanaPolicy.org.
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Posted by News LI Editor · Filed Under Society
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3 Responses to “Marijuana Arrests Set All-Time Record”
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Good thing the government sees that marijuana prohibition doesnt work
- Posted by: paul
The U.S. Federal Government has been lying to us about marijuana/cannabis since 1937. This is even in the Drug Czar’s job description. He must say and do anything that it takes to keep cannabis from being legalized. The Federal Government classifies cannabis as a schedule 1 drug. Like Heroin. They say that it has a high risk of addiction. That it has no proven medicinal properties. Wait, that sound like alcohol or tobacco. Tobacco kills 450,000+ Americans per year, alcohol 150,000+ yearly. Yet, cannabis has never been proven to kill anyone, ever. The U.S. Federal Government contradicts their own claims that marijuana has a high risk of addiction. The NIDA ranks marijuana below caffeine for the risk of addiction, and withdrawals are usually mild and short lived, as are side effects. Why did the U.S. Federal Agency of Health and Human Services (HHS) take out U.S. patent #6,630,507 on cannabinoids? Which states that cannabinoids have medicinal properties and has a wide range of medicinal uses. This alone should nullify the schedule 1 classification of cannabis. Plus, any state (now 12) that legalizes cannabis for medical purposes immediately voids the federal classification of cannabis as a class one drug. But, no one has challenged these conflicts which have unlawfully put thousands of people in federal prisons for non-violent cannabis possession. Americans may not know all these details. But, they know that cannabis is far safer than the drugs called acohol, tobacco and pharmaceutical meds. This maybe why cannabis use has gone up 4000% since Nixon ignored his own Schafer Commission and declared the war on drugs in 1971. The average cannabis user is a successful, middle class person with no arrest record. Average cannabis use is casual to moderate. Consider the all time record amount of arrests for marijuana/cannabis. Law enforcement acknowledges that only 5-10% of cannabis is ever seized. So, these massive arrest figures actually illustrate the massive failure of cannabis prohibition. The Drug Czar and all his prohibitionists buddies such as the DEA/NIDA/SAMSHA are trying to incarcerate their way out of the artificially created drug war. While, they deny that they have arrested almost 900,000 Americans for cannabis in 2007. This schizophrenic behavior comes from their own addiction to ever increasing bugetary funds and ever more power. I contend that it is not our nation’s affluence that has so greatly increased cannabis use. Rather, it’s a safer way to relax from the pressures that come from trying to live life styles of the rich and famous. This is what drives every facet of our society to acquire as much money as they can get. This especially goes for the US. Government and it’s politicans. They get $billions of taxpayer dollars every year to keep cannabis illegal. This is why prohibition will have to be ended by mass demonstrations and smart voters who demand an end to that scam. Barney Frank and Bobb Barr are just a few of the first politicians to see which way the winds are blowing. Voters know that 72 years of cannabis prohibition has actually caused far more harm to society than cannabis use itself does. This is why we want an end to this madness. End the war on cannabis users, now.
- Posted by: J Biten
[…] United States could be making a fortune instead of spending one housing offenders in jail. As Newsli.com reports: Most Americans have no idea of the massive effort going into a war on marijuana users that […]
- Posted by: Opinion: Drug Czar Needs To Check Out All The Unicorns In Jail « Moments In Time