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.

The Chicago Tribune reported on the recently released ACLU report about racial disparities in nationwide arrests for marijuana possession, and looked at where Illinois, and specifically Cook County, rank on the national scale.

The ACLU also found that Cook County piled up far more marijuana possession arrests in 2010 than any other county in America. Cook County tallied more than 33,000 pot arrests that year, with blacks, who account for 25 percent of the county's population, making up nearly 73 percent of those busted.

Read the whole thing.

WBEZ ran a piece on the report released by the ACLU about racial disparities in nationwide arrests for marijuana possession. The report also broke down the numbers for Illinois, and found that black people are 8 times more likely than white people to be arrested for pot. WBEZ spoke with Communications and Public Policy Director Ed Yohnka about the implications of the report's findings.

Yohnka says that disparity “results in really tragic outcomes in … people’s lives,” because of court costs and the stigma of a criminal record.  It cost the state about $221 million to enforce marijuana laws in 2010, according to the report.

“This war on marijuana … is an abject failure,” Yohnka said.

Read the rest.