Marijuana Arrests in the United States - 2007
Jon Gettman, "Marijuana Arrests in the United States (2007)", The Bulletin of Cannabis Reform, November 5, 2009
The most exhaustive collection of data ever on U.S. marijuana arrests, penalties and related information, finds no relationship between marijuana arrest and use rates, while penalty structures act as a price support mechanism that boosts the illegal market. Assembled by Jon Gettman, Adjunct Assistant Professor in Criminal Justice at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, the new report finds that, among other things, marijuana arrests have doubled since 1991 while the use of marijuana has remained steady, and that African-Americans are arrested for marijuana three times more than whites despite having only 25% higher use rates.
The full report is available for free download at http://www.drugscience.org/Archive/bcr7/bcr7_index.html.