[robertpaulsen]

My statement was that "past month" marijuana use has been up recently (ie., the last couple of years). I said that rise was due to a number of factors that have been building up over the years -- lax enforcement (marijuana arrests lowest priority), the move towards decriminalization, and the recent medical marijuana laws. These factors lead to a lower perceived risk.

You wish to focus on just one those factors -- arrests. Fine. For the last 10 years, the number of marijuana arrests has been flat. As a percentage of the population, therefore, it's actually gone down. As a percentage of marijuana smokers, it's gone down even more.

[Ken H]

For the last 10 years, the number of marijuana arrests has been flat.

Marijuana arrests/past-month use:

1994 - 481,000/10,000,000
2004 - 771,000/14,500,000

Rio Linda summary for 1994-2004: Arrests up by almost 60%, past-month use up over 40%!