[Mb-hair] Record high pot arrests in 2004

[Mha Atma Khalsa]

Marijuana Arrests For Year 2004: 771,608, Record High;
FBI Report Reveals

Special News Release:
Marijuana Arrests For Year 2004: 771,608, Record High;
FBI Report Reveals
Pot Smokers Arrested In America At A Rate Of One Every
41 Seconds

October 17, 2005

Washington, DC: Police arrested an estimated 771,608
persons for marijuana violations in 2004, according to
the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform
Crime Report, released today. The total is the highest
ever recorded by the FBI, and comprised 44.2 percent
of all drug arrests in the United States.

'"These numbers belie the myth that police do not
target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said
NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre, who noted
that at current rates, a marijuana smoker is arrested
every 41 seconds in America. "This effort is a
tremendous waste of criminal justice resources that
diverts law enforcement personnel away from focusing
on serious and violent crime, including the war on
terrorism."

Of those charged with marijuana violations, 89 percent
- some 684,319 Americans - were charged with
possession only. The remaining 87,289 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. In past years, approximately 30 percent of those
arrested were age 19 or younger.

"Present policies have done little if anything to
decrease marijuana's availability or dissuade youth
from trying it," St. Pierre said, noting that a
majority of young people in the U.S. now report that
they have easier access to pot than alcohol or
tobacco.
The total number of marijuana arrests in the U.S. for
2004 far exceeded the total number of arrests in the
U.S. for all violent crimes combined, including
murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and
aggravated assault.

Marijuana arrests have more than doubled since 1993.
"Arresting adults who smoke marijuana responsibly
needlessly destroys the lives of tens of thousands of
otherwise law abiding citizens each year," St. Pierre
said, adding that over 8 million Americans have been
arrested on marijuana charges in the past decade.
During this same time, arrests for cocaine and heroin
have declined sharply, indicating that increased
enforcement of marijuana laws is being achieved at the
expense of enforcing laws against the possession and
trafficking of more dangerous drugs.

St. Pierre concluded that "with nearly 17 million
citizens arrested on marijuana-related charges since
1965, is now not the time for the state and federal
governments to finally consider legally controlling
marijuana via taxation? Is not such a public policy
preferable to the current one where government arrests
an extraordinary amount of citizens for an adult
behavior that is not deviant, or, for that matter,
dissimilar than consuming products that contain
alcohol?"

YEAR       MARIJUANA ARRESTS
2004       771,608 
2003       755,187
2002       697,082
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

For more information, please contact NORML's Executive
Director Allen St. Pierre, at (202) 483-5500. To view
NORML's latest and most comprehensive report and
analysis of marijuana arrests in the United States,
visit:

http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6411

With arrest numbers rising for marijuana consumers,
citizens need to know what the penalties are in their
state NORML has created a one-stop-shop for citizens
wanting marijuana penalty info at:
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=4516

Marijuana laws can not reform themselves, and
certainly not without caring citizens getting
involved. Please join and support NORML's long
standing reform efforts by visiting:
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3443



	
		
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