Marijuana Arrests For Year 2001 Second Highest Ever

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[Texaggie79]

Marijuana Arrests For Year 2001 Second Highest Ever Despite Feds' War On Terror, FBI Report Reveals

Washington, DC: Police arrested an estimated 723,627 persons for marijuana violations in 2001, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. The total is the second highest ever recorded by the FBI, and comprises nearly half of all drug arrests in the United States.

"These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said Keith Stroup, Executive Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). "In fact, the war on drugs is largely a war on pot smokers. This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources that should be dedicated toward combating serious and violent crime, including the war on terrorism."

Of those charged with marijuana violations, 88.6 percent - some 641,108 Americans - were charged with possession only. The remaining 82,518 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation offenses - even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use.

The total number of marijuana arrests far exceeds the total number of arrests for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Since 1992, approximately six million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges, a greater number than the entire populations of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming combined. Annual marijuana arrests have nearly doubled in that time.

"It's time we stopped arresting adults who use marijuana responsibly," says Stroup.

YEAR MARIJUANA ARRESTS

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

For more information, please contact Keith Stroup or Paul Armentano of NORML at (202) 483-5500. NORML "Talking Points" on marijuana arrest and incarceration rates are available online at: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3381.

[Illbay]

Dear Msrs. Stroup and Armentano:

Stop breaking the law. You will be assured of remaining free.

N.B.: Help is available for you to kick your addiction to pot. Please get some.

[AUgrad]

BTTT

[Texaggie79]

If Chinese would not practice Chi-Gong, they wouldn't be killed. It's their own damn fault. If Cubans would keep their mouths shut and not talk critically about Castro, they wouldnt have to worry about going to jail. It's against the law in those countries, they just need to stop breaking the law.

Glad you simplified it for us Illbay

[Wolfie]

Heck, doesn't look like things really got crankin' until Clinton took over. Silver lining for some, I guess.

[Illbay]

I realize that, for many, pot IS a religion. But for the vast majority of us, trying to equate the right to get stoned--and likely, to harm others by one's actions, not to mention becoming the burden on society that stoners inevitably do--with the First Amendment is REALLY stretching things beyond the credible breaking point.

[Oberon]

Stop breaking the law. You will be assured of remaining free.

"If you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear."

-Lavrenti Beria, Moscow, 1935

[FreeTally]

Of those charged with marijuana violations, 88.6 percent - some 641,108 Americans - were charged with possession only. The remaining 82,518 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that includes all cultivation offenses - even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use.

But they aren't arresting users I here. This can not be right. /sarcasm

The total number of marijuana arrests far exceeds the total number of arrests for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Let me insert the obligatory "I feel much safer".

[Lysander]

How many of the 70,000,000+ people who admit to smoking pot do you think we would have to arrest to win the drug war?

[BrooklynGOP]

Stop breaking the law. You will be assured of remaining free.

Why not make alcohol illegal?

[mysterio]

Don't even bother. He only comes on threads to start flame wars.

[BrooklynGOP]

But for the vast majority of us, trying to equate the right to get stoned

Vast majority? Hah! What are YOU smoking?

--and likely, to harm others by one's actions,

For example? I bet more people cause harm by their alcohol influenced actions then by pot. not to mention becoming the burden on society that stoners inevitably do--with the First Amendment is REALLY stretching things beyond the credible breaking point.

What places a burden on us is the WOD.

[AUgrad]

Are you suggesting this person does not have the right to advocate for change?

[Illbay]

I'm all for it.

[eastsider]

harm others by one's actions

What harm to others did you have in mind?

[Texaggie79]

and likely, to harm others by one's actions

Please tell me how you figure that. I'm 100% with you on HARD drugs. Crack, meth, ect. Ya, they are a THREAT. But show me ONE threat to you or anyone that someone that smokes pot poses. Apparently, the propaganda has worked on you, because you seem to think that everyone that smokes pot is a pothead. Is everyone that drinks an alcoholic? Most people that smoke pot smoke it less than social drinkers drink.

[Illbay]

Of course he has that right. Just so long as he does so without abetting the sale and use of an illegal narcotic.

[1FreeAmerican]

And he's not very good at it either.

[gdani]

I'm all for it.

At least you're consistent in your wish to Taliban-ize America.

[xrp]

Some people are alcohol addicts. They rob or kill to support their addiction. Some addicts drink and drive and cause accidents and kill other people.

Maybe alcohol should be outlawed.

Some people are sex addicts and rape or kill in order to pursue their sex craze.

Sounds like sex should be outlawed. We have technology to reproduce the human race now without sex, so we can outlaw it.

How about this: You worry about what you put in your body and let other people worry about what they put in their bodies, as long as they are not infringing upon the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of other Americans. Someone smoking pot on his/her property is not infringing upon my rights, however, someone telling me what I should or should not put in my body IS infringing upon my rights to do with my body as I see fit.