Marijuana Arrests: Another Record Year
According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, a record 829,625 Americans were arrested for violating marijuana laws last year. Of those arrested, 89 percent of those were charged with simple pot possession — the highest annual total ever recorded and nearly three times the number of citizens busted 15 years ago. Despite protests from local law enforcement that they do not target marijuana users, marijuana arrests have increased every year for the past 16 years.
YEAR : MARIJUANA ARRESTS
2006 : 829,625
2005 : 786,545
2004 : 771,608
2003 : 755,187
2002 : 697,082
2001 : 723,627
2000 : 734,498
1999 : 704,812
1998 : 682,885
1997 : 695,200
1996 : 641,642
1995 : 588,963
1994 : 499,122
1993 : 380,689
1992 : 342,314
1991 : 287,850
1990 : 326,850
The bottom line: Since 1990 over 10.4 million Americans — predominantly young people under age 30 — have been busted for pot. Thousands have been disenfranchised, tens of thousands have been unnecessarily sent to “drug treatment,” hundreds of thousands have lost their eligibility for student aid, and perhaps an entire generation (or two) has been alienated to believe that the police are an instrument of their oppression rather than their protection. These are the tangible results of the government’s stepped up war on pot — results that go beyond the FBI’s record numbers, and it’s time for politicians and the general public to reconsider our law enforcement and security priorities.