New report on marijuana offenses

I have just received a note from folks at The Sentencing Project about its new report on marijuana policy, entitled “The War on Marijuana: The Transformation of the War on Drugs in the 1990s.” The report, which can be accessed at this link, indicates that “since 1990, law enforcement priorities have become heavily skewed toward arresting low-level marijuana offenders as part of the ‘war on drugs’ strategy.”  The e-mail I received details the following highlights of the report:

• 82% of the 450,000 increase in drug arrests since 1990 has been for marijuana offenses, and 88% of this rise has been for possession offenses.

• Marijuana arrests now total 700,000 a year nationally, representing 45% of all drug arrests.

• Arrests for marijuana offenses rose by 113% from 1990 to 2002, while arrests for all other drug offenses increased by just 10%.

• Most marijuana arrests are for low-level offenses, with only 1 in 18 resulting in a felony conviction.

• While African Americans constitute an estimated 14% of regular marijuana users, blacks are 30% of persons arrested for marijuana violations.