STUDY: Blacks Are Nearly 4 Times As Likely As Whites of Being Arrested for Pot Possession
According to the ACLU, authorities are targeting African Americans for marijuana-related offenses. The racial disparity is astounding.
According to their study, whites and blacks use marijuana at the same rate.
Yet, African Americans are nearly four times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession. On a state-by-state basis, this disparity is even higher.
In Washington D.C., Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois, blacks were 7.5 to 8.5 times more likely than whites to be arrested for possessing pot.
Most of the people being arrested weren’t drug kingpins. Fifty-two percent of all drug arrests in 2010 were for marijuana, and according to the ACLU’s analysis, most of the arrestees were in possession of small amounts of the drug.
Having a black president hasn’t eased this racial disparity, either. During President Barack Obama’s first three years in office, the arrest rate for marijuana possession was about 5 percent higher than the average rate under President George W. Bush, The New York Times reported.
Read more at the Huffington Post
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