[crackmonkey] [glen@qnx.com: DPFCA: FBI report reveals record number of marijuana arrests]

[Nick Moffitt]

----- Forwarded message from glen mccready <glen at qnx.com> -----
Forwarded-by: Nev Dull <nev at bostic.com>
Forwarded-by: Jim Rosenfield <jnr at insightweb.com>

Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1998 20:03:24 -0800
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                NOVEMBER 22, 1998

                         MARIJUANA ARREST RECORD:

              New FBI Report Reveals More Marijuana Arrests
               in 1997 Than Any Other Year in U.S. History

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The total number of marijuana arrests was higher in
1997 than in any other year in U.S. history, according to an FBI report
released on November 22. There were 695,201 marijuana arrests last year,
87% of which were for possession.[1]

     The FBI's Uniform Crime Reports division's annual report, _Crime in
the United States_, provides the number of arrests made by state and local
law-enforcement agencies.

     "This is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources," said
Chuck Thomas, director of communications for the Washington, D.C.- based
Marijuana Policy Project. "Marijuana prohibition creates dangerous
criminal markets and takes police resources away from violent crime."

     The number of marijuana arrests was almost as high as the number of
arrests for murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault combined
(717,720).[2]

     "It is time to stop arresting adults who grow and consume their own
marijuana at home -- and instead put these enforcement resources into
effective drug education," said Chuck Thomas. "Public safety and
children's health are at stake."

     Today, the Marijuana Policy Project released its new report,
"Marijuana Arrests and Incarceration in the United States," using
government-supplied data to estimate that there are presently 37,000
marijuana offenders incarcerated in federal and state prisons and local
jails in the United States. (MPP's report is available on-line at
http://www.mpp.org/prisoners.html.)

     "Looking at arrest and incarceration data, it's clear that Clinton's
war on marijuana users is the toughest ever," said Thomas.

1. Numbers are derived by multiplying the percentage of all "drug
   abuse violations" that were for marijuana "sale/manufacture" (5.6%)
   and for marijuana "possession" (38.3%) by the total number of arrests
   for all drug abuse violations (1,583,600). These percentages and
   numbers appear in Table 4.1, page 221, and Table 29, page 222,
   respectively, of FBI's _Crime in the United States: 1997_.

2. Table 29, page 222.

----- End forwarded message -----

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