ACLU Nationwide released a multi-media report on the state of the war on marijuana today, and vast racial disparities in the rate of arrests for pot possession nationwide. Marijuana possession as a criminal charge has huge impacts on the lives of those accused. The process of charging and jailing masses of people for marijuana possession costs taxpayers billions of dollars each year. And, marijuana possession accounts for over half of all criminal drug charges in the U.S. In Illinois blacks are 7.6 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession, despite the fact that prevalence of marijuana use is equal among racial groups.
Click below to download a PDF version of the Illinois one-pager:
Get more facts at aclu.org/marijuana.
