Marijuana legalization won't stop racially skewed arrests. But it limits them
Submitted by Marijuana News on Thu, 03/24/2016 - 08:45
One of the most common arguments for marijuana legalization is getting a little more complicated.
A new preliminary report by Mike Males at YouthFacts found that the marijuana arrest rate dramatically dropped — by 76 percent between 2008 and 2014 — in five states after they legalized or decriminalized the drug, as one would expect. In comparison, marijuana arrest rates in all other states fell by just 15 percent in the same time period.
But it also found that the racial disparities within those arrests didn't improve, even though black people aren't more likely to use or sell drugs than their white peers.
So in Colorado, which legalized pot in 2012, the total number of marijuana arrests fell by 60 percent from 2008 to 2014. But racial disparities remained: Black Coloradans were still more than twice as likely to be arrested for pot as...
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