Confounding
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- Jan 31, 2016
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Imagine how much more time and energy the police could be using to fight real crime.
Police arrest more people for marijuana use than for all violent crimes combined
On any given day in the United States, at least 137,000 men and women sit behind bars on simple drug possession charges, according to a report released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch. Nearly two-thirds of them are in local jails. According to the report, most of these jailed inmates have not been convicted of any crime: They're sitting in a cell, awaiting a day in court which may be months or even years off, because they can't afford to post bail.
"It's been 45 years since the war on drugs was declared and it hasn't been a success," lead author Tess Borden of the Human Rights Watch said in an interview. "Rates of drug use are not down. Drug dependency has not stopped. Every 25 seconds we're arresting someone for drug use."
Federal figures on drug arrests and drug use over the past three decades tell the story. Drug possession arrests skyrocketed, from fewer than 200 arrests for every 100,000 people in 1979 to more than 500 in the mid-2000s. The drug possession rate has since fallen slightly, according to the FBI, hovering now around 400 arrests per 100,000 people.
Defenders of harsh penalties for drug possession say they're necessary to deter people from using drugs and protect the public health. But despite the tough-on-crime push that led to the surge in arrests in recent decades, illicit drug use today is more common among Americans age 12 and older than it was in the early 1980s. Federal figures show no correlation between drug possession arrests and rates of drug use during that time.
Police arrest more people for marijuana use than for all violent crimes combined
On any given day in the United States, at least 137,000 men and women sit behind bars on simple drug possession charges, according to a report released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch. Nearly two-thirds of them are in local jails. According to the report, most of these jailed inmates have not been convicted of any crime: They're sitting in a cell, awaiting a day in court which may be months or even years off, because they can't afford to post bail.
"It's been 45 years since the war on drugs was declared and it hasn't been a success," lead author Tess Borden of the Human Rights Watch said in an interview. "Rates of drug use are not down. Drug dependency has not stopped. Every 25 seconds we're arresting someone for drug use."
Federal figures on drug arrests and drug use over the past three decades tell the story. Drug possession arrests skyrocketed, from fewer than 200 arrests for every 100,000 people in 1979 to more than 500 in the mid-2000s. The drug possession rate has since fallen slightly, according to the FBI, hovering now around 400 arrests per 100,000 people.
Defenders of harsh penalties for drug possession say they're necessary to deter people from using drugs and protect the public health. But despite the tough-on-crime push that led to the surge in arrests in recent decades, illicit drug use today is more common among Americans age 12 and older than it was in the early 1980s. Federal figures show no correlation between drug possession arrests and rates of drug use during that time.
