The legalization of herb

Before we get started with this section, let's review some statistics.

Marihuana arrests now account for over half of all drug arrests in the United States.  Of the 8.2 million marihuana arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for simply having marihuana.

Despite roughly equal usage rates, blacks are 3.73 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marihuana.

Police officers made about 663,000 arrests for marihuana-related offenses in the 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2018, amounting to 40% of the 1.65 million total drug arrests in the U.S. that year.

The second-largest category of drug arrests involved “other” drugs (29%), followed by heroin, cocaine or their derivatives (25%) and synthetic or manufactured drugs (6%).

These figures include arrests for possessing, selling or manufacturing each kind of drug. They are based on information submitted to the FBI from thousands of state and local law enforcement agencies, which make the vast majority of arrests in the U.S. each year.

As has long been the case, around nine-in-ten U.S. marihuana arrests are for possessing the drug, rather than selling or manufacturing it.  In 2018, 92% of marihuana arrests were for possession and 8% were for selling or manufacturing.

Amount spent annually in the U.S. on the war on drugs: $47+ billion.
 

Number of arrests in 2018 in the U.S. for drug law violations: 1,654,282 

Number of drug arrests that were for possession only: 1,429,299  

Number of people arrested for a marihuana law violation in 2018: 663,367 

Number of those charged with marihuana law violations who were arrested for possession only: 608,775 

Percentage of people arrested in 2017 for drug law violations who are Black: 27% (despite making up just 13.4% of the U.S. population).

Number of people in the U.S. incarcerated in 2016: 2.3 million – the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Number of people in the U.S. incarcerated for a drug law violation in 2016: 450,000

Number of people in the U.S. who died from an accidental drug overdose in 2018: almost 68,000
 

Number of states that allow the medical use of marihuana: 33+ District of Columbia.
 

Number of states that have legalized marihuana: 11+ District of Columbia - (Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington State).
 

Number of states that have decriminalized or removed the threat of jail time for simple possession of small amounts of marijuana: 26+ District of Columbia.
 

Number of people killed in Mexico's drug war since 2006: 150,000 

Number of people killed in the Philippines drug war since 2016: up to 20,000

See references on History page.

More info coming...