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Share links: arrests - POWs - cannabis POWs. This article was written by Timeshifter. See also: People in prisons and jails in the USA for drug-related crime. And: Drug war charts and maps. And: Wikimedia Commons:Category:Cannabis arrest statistics. And: The U.S. Drug War. Republicans lead. And: Cost of drug war. And: Influential cannabis users. And: Drug war causes high U.S. incarceration rate.
Marijuana prisoners
40.000+ in 2011. In state and federal prisons. Jail numbers not included.
- Marijuana | Drug War Facts. Section: "Cannabis and the Criminal Justice System". And subsection: "State and Federal Marijuana Prisoners". It says there were around 44,000 in 2004. This does not include those in jails.
- Life In Prison For Pot And Other Travesties Of Marijuana Prohibition. 4 Sept. 2014. Forbes. From the article there is this 2011 estimate of roughly 40,000 marijuana prisoners (in state and federal prisons, but not in local jails):
In 2004, according to a 2007 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, marijuana convictions accounted for 12.7 percent of drug offenders in state prisons and 12.4 percent of drug offenders in federal prisons. Applying those percentages to the drug offender numbers for 2011 (225,200 state, 94,600 federal) suggests that roughly 40,000 people are serving time in state and federal prisons for marijuana offenses. That number does not include people serving shorter sentences in local jails, where a total of about 182,000 drug offenders were confined in 2011. Nor does it include the vast majority of the 758,000 people arrested for marijuana offenses that year.
- Nearly One In Eight US Drug Prisoners Are Behind Bars For Pot. 12 October 2006. NORML.
Timeline of cannabis arrests by year:
Life for pot
- See main article: USA. Life for pot.
Jeff Mizanskey 2015 Sep 1
- Life in prison for selling marijuana: Meet the people new pot laws forgot. MSNBC. 8 Sep 2015. [84][85]. "At least 67 people are in prison right now, sentenced to die there for selling marijuana". And: LifeForPot.com. And: POW420.com also lists some cannabis lifers. Facebook: Life for Pot. And: Life In Prison For Pot And Other Travesties Of Marijuana Prohibition. 4 Sept. 2014. Forbes.
- Jeff Mizanskey, life without parole: Missouri man freed after spending two decades in prison for marijuana charge. 1 Sep 2015. Guardian. [86]. And: Grandpa Doing Life Without Parole. [87][88]. Nazi Republican prosecutor.
- Saudi Arabia beheads 4 for pot.[89][90][91][92]. Religious Right: Supported Life for Pot. [93][94][95]. Republican Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich wanted executions.
- Life for Pot Prisoner Larry Duke Released! [96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103].
| The drug war is a big cause of the high US incarceration rate. Also, the rest of the developed world has much lower rates of handgun ownership, and much lower murder rates. They never reached the levels of violence the USA did due to handguns and drug war. So they never had the clamoring of the far-right National Rifle Association (NRA) demanding mandatory minimum sentencing. Canada and Europe have long had much lower incarceration rates, better healthcare, and far fewer and shorter sentences for marijuana offenses. |
People in prisons and jails for drug offences
- See main article: People in prisons and jails in the USA for drug-related crime.
489,000 in 2013 (see chart below). For drug offenses alone.
Does not count drug-related burglary, robbery, murder, etc. to get drug money, defend turf, etc..
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Obama helped turn around the Reagan-Bush War on Pot, mandatory minimums, mass incarceration. See: US incarceration peaked in 2008.
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USA: Peak of 7.3 million people in 2007 under adult correctional supervision: On probation or parole, or incarcerated in jail or prison. About 3.2% of the U.S. adult population, or 1 in every 31 adults. More info here. See template.
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In 2009 26.4% of those in federal and state prisons, or on probation or parole, were in due to drug offenses. Jail numbers are not included below.
| The majority of people incarcerated in prisons and jails in the USA are in due to drug-related offenses, crimes to get money for drugs, or drug-related parole or probation violations. Wikipedia: Drug-related crime. The number of inmates in the USA has increased almost 5 times over since 1980. The USA has the highest incarceration rate of any nation b c (except for the tiny country of the Seychelles). Compare incarceration rates worldwide. The cost of the U.S. drug war is at least 1.5 trillion dollars. Cannabis is safer! Share link. |
More on cannabis arrests
| U.S. drug arrests | U.S. cannabis arrests only | |
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Year Arrests 1965 18,815 1966 31,119 1967 61,843 1968 95,870 1969 118,903 1970 188,682 1971 225,828 1972 292,179 1973 420,700 1974 445,000 1975 416,100 1976 441,100 1977 457,600 1978 445,800 1979 391,600 1980 401,982 1981 400,300 1982 455,600 1983 406,900 1984 419,400 1985 451,100 1986 361,800 1987 378,700 1988 391,600 |
Year Arrests 1989 399,000 1990 326,900 1991 287,900 1992 342,300 1993 380,700 1994 481,100 1995 589,000 1996 641,600 1997 695,200 1998 682,900 1999 704,800 2000 734,500 2001 723,600 2002 697,100 2003 755,200 2004 771,600 2005 786,500 2006 829,600 2007 872,700 2008 847,863 2009 858,408 2010 853,839 2011 757,969 2012 749,825 |
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Chart above from United States Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Image info. Source: Drugs and Crime Facts: Drug law violations and enforcement. Data source here. 23,488,625 U.S. cannabis arrests from 1965 to 2012. Of the 757,969 in 2011 an estimated 663,032 were for marijuana possession alone. See cannabis arrests. Data sources here and here. See template. | ||
Sources for marijuana arrest numbers:
- These numbers were used for 1965 through 1981 (except for 1980):
- These BJS numbers were used for 1982 through 2007:
- 1982-2007: Drugs and Crime Facts: Drug law violations and enforcement. From the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reports.
- The 2008 through 2012 numbers came from the link below. Also, 1980:
- 1995-2012 (and 1980, 1990): Marijuana. Drug War Facts. From Common Sense for Drug Policy. Table also has possession and sales breakdown, total drug arrests, violent crime arrests, property crime arrests, and total arrests of all kinds. Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reports.
- Since the 1980 number is different between the sources, the last link above is used due to its detailed listing of sources.
- Compare cannabis arrest numbers with other categories of arrests:
- Drug Arrest Rates for Drug Abuse Violations statistics. USA census numbers.
- Percent distribution of arrests for drug abuse violations. By type of drug, United States, 1982-2009. Sourcebook of criminal justice statistics Online.
- See also: Wikimedia Commons:Category:Cannabis arrest statistics.
Marijuana arrests accounted for 52% of all U.S. drug arrests in 2010.
Marijuana possession versus violent crime
- Police in Washington divert efforts to other crimes due to marijuana law. Much money saved. 20 March 2014. MSNBC.
- Marijuana Possession Arrests Exceed Violent Crime Arrests (INFOGRAPHIC). 17 Jan 2013. Huffington Post.
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Seth Rogen. See source.
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Europe and Canada have much lower murder rates than the USA. They also have more harm-reduction oriented drug policies. Sources and data here and here. See Wikipedia: List of countries by intentional homicide rate.
More info and news
- marijuana-arrests.com
- March On Mayor Bloomberg's House: Protest Marijuana Arrests. By Steve Elliott. March 28, 2012. From the article: "Under Bloomberg, More Than 400,000 People Arrested on Low-Level Marijuana Charges in NYC. ... He's spending at least $75 million a year for these arrests. ... In the last five years under Bloomberg, the NYPD made more marijuana arrests than in the 24 years under Mayors Giuliani, Dinkins and Koch combined."
2017 Global Marijuana March and 420
May 6, 2017, Saturday, or thereabouts. And April 20 (4/20), or thereabouts. Rallies and marches overall change public opinion for the better! See: Cannabis polls.
- 2017 Global Marijuana March and 420 events. - Worldwide.
- USA. 2017 Global Marijuana March and 420 city list. - USA.
- 420 event lists. - Worldwide.
2017 Facebook event pages for Global Marches and 420. - Some cities.
Main Facebook pages for organizing global marches.
| US states that have legalized as of November 2016 election. |
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Cannabis is safer
Return to top. See article: Cannabis is safer.
See: Reagan's war on cannabis. And: Holy War on Drugs, Republican-led mass incarceration.
| Ronald Reagan, 1980 campaign speech 1: "Leading medical researchers are coming to the conclusion that marijuana, pot, grass, whatever you want to call it, is probably the most dangerous drug in the United States, and we haven't begun to find out all of the ill effects, but they are permanent ill effects. The loss of memory for example." |
- See Reagan say it at 1 minute 7 seconds into this video clip narrated by Woody Harrelson.
- Obama correctly said that cannabis is safer than alcohol. See: Cannabis is safer. He also said marijuana should be treated more as a public health issue than a criminal one. And: Obama signals support for legalizing medical marijuana. [104]. See video.
- USA. 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults are alcohol-related (disease, overdose, car crashes, falls, violence, etc). 87,798 per year, 2006 to 2010. [105][106][107][108][109].
See longer article: Cannabis is safer.
- Imagine if Mitt Romney had been elected President in 2012 instead of Obama.
- Obama on marijuana legalization. [110]. "My suspicion is that you’re gonna see other states start looking at this". The Washington Post. Jan. 22, 2015.
Above quote is from Sanjay Gupta interview of Obama on April 15, 2015. Interview aired on CNN on April 19, 2015. [111][112][113].
- Obama administration asks Supreme Court to reject lawsuit filed by Republican governments in Oklahoma and Nebraska to stop legal marijuana in Colorado [114]. December 2015.
 Obama helped turn around the Reagan-Bush War on Pot, mandatory minimums, mass incarceration. See: US incarceration peaked in 2008. |
USA. Republican war on cannabis
The Cannabis War is over and the U.S. Republican Party has lost. They may not know it yet, so keep marching, lobbying, and voting! Please register and vote! See: Reagan's War on Cannabis. And: Drug war, control, and Republican-led income inequality. And: Alternatives to Republican-led mass incarceration.
Vermont's Republican Governor Scott Vetoes Marijuana Legalization bill of Democrat legislature. May 24, 2017. And: New Mexico's Republican governor vetoes a bill that would have allowed medical marijuana for opioid addiction. April 7, 2017. And: New Mexico's Republican governor vetoes the 911 Good Samaritan Overdose Prevention Bill. April 7, 2017. And: Idaho's Republican governor vetoes a broadly-supported asset forfeiture reform bill. April 7, 2017.
| U.S. Republican Party: Greed, Ground Wars, Drug Wars, and Mass Incarceration. |
Will 2018 midterm elections remove Republicans? 2017-18 ballot issues: marijuana & minimum wage.
Democrats, following Bernie Sanders lead, propose bill to raise minimum wage to $15 by 2024. Republicans oppose raising federal minimum wage. [117] [118].
Presidents alone can not reschedule it
- See main article: Presidents alone can not reschedule marijuana.
The president alone can not reschedule marijuana. [119] [120][121][122]. Since HHS (Health and Human Services) and the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) have again declined to reschedule or deschedule cannabis, then only Congress can do so. But Congress removed help for veterans: Republicans in Congress Won’t Let Veterans Access Medical Marijuana After All. [123][124]. And Congressional Republican committee leaders refuse hearings on CARERS bill to reschedule cannabis. See: Medical Marijuana Advocates Rally to Loosen Restrictions. By Alicia Ault. 23 Mar 2016. Medscape.
- Wikipedia: Drug Enforcement Administration. See "Criticism" section.
- Wikipedia: Removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.
- DEA Removes Marijuana Misinformation From Website After Months of Pressure. By Steve Elliott. Feb 13, 2017.
- DEA Pulls Back From Calling Marijuana One Of The 'Most Dangerous Drugs'. By Cody Fenwick. August 16, 2016. Patch Media
- The Science behind the DEA's Long War on Marijuana. 19 April 2016. Scientific American. Unless Congress acts, the DEA has final say on rescheduling or descheduling marijuana.
- Pot Matters: For Legalization, Set Your Sights on the Senate. 23 Mar 2016. By Jon Gettman. "it will be helpful, and indeed crucial, for advancing legalization for Democrats to take control of the Senate." Maybe in 2018?
- FDA Weighs in on Rescheduling Cannabis. By Ben Adlin. 28 Dec 2015. Leafly.
Drug war, control, mass incarceration
 | See: Drug war, control, and Republican-led income inequality. And: Drug war causes high U.S. incarceration rate. And: Drug War, mandatory minimum sentencing, handguns. And: US incarceration peaked in 2008. And: Number of marijuana prisoners in the USA. And: List of countries and U.S. states by incarceration rate.
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| The majority of people incarcerated in prisons and jails in the USA are in due to drug-related offenses, crimes to get money for drugs, or drug-related parole or probation violations. Wikipedia: Drug-related crime. The number of inmates in the USA has increased almost 5 times over since 1980. The USA has the highest incarceration rate of any nation b c (except for the tiny country of the Seychelles). Compare incarceration rates worldwide. The cost of the U.S. drug war is at least 1.5 trillion dollars. Cannabis is safer! Share link. |
| Jail, jail deaths (2), and bail. A Lot Of People Are Dying At This Understaffed Texas Jail. And: How the Money Bail System Perpetuates America’s Mass Incarceration Problem. 2. And: Justice Department blasts ‘unconstitutional’ fixed bail schedules. Many innocent people in jail. And: Many marijuana users in jail without bail money. |
| The mentally ill. Rundle Won't Charge Prison Guards Who Allegedly Boiled Schizophrenic Black Man to Death for 2 Hours in Shower. Death Ruled An Accident. Documents Show They Omitted Key Details. Florida inmate in for cocaine possession. 2345. Due to lack of single-payer universal healthcare the mentally ill end up incarcerated and untreated. Prison costs far more than caring for them to begin with. For their non-violent offenses three-quarters of Americans favor ‘rehabilitation’ over jail time, survey finds. Poor health care in general in prisons and jails. Inmates Pay A Small Fortune To See A Doctor. 2.3. |
Green love
The Global Marijuana March is the first Saturday in May. The first Saturday in May is also World Naked Gardening Day. Your marijuana garden needs love too 
. (see Google search for it). But, be safe!
- Abortion Rates Dropped Sharply. What Caused It?
- Free birth control under ObamaCare.
- Colorado’s Effort Against Teenage Pregnancies Is a Startling Success. Free birth control.
| Republicans think they can spend an infinite amount of money (many trillions of dollars) on health-insurance-company-based healthcare, and have an infinite number of babies, to feed their appetite for endless ground wars, and for more inmates for more prisons for more drug war. |
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| Wikipedia: Population milestone babies. |
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| As with cannabis legalization Colorado leads the way.. More info. 2.3.. |
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Single Payer. Half the cost of Trumpcare
Portugal. Few die of overdoses
- See: End drug war with universal healthcare.
- See: Canadian single-payer healthcare and Portuguese drug decriminalization.
Portugal has decriminalized all drugs. Like Canada it has universal healthcare. See: Portugal. Cannabis-related links. See: Wikipedia: Drug policy of Portugal and Wikipedia: Health in Portugal. Nearly all of the European Union (EU) has universal healthcare. [125][126]. See: List of countries with universal health care.
Source for above chart: Are any conservatives in the US for a single payer and a universal health care system, or can they not coexist? Chart is from comment around March 11, 2017 by Dan Munro, "author of Casino Healthcare and Forbes contributor".
Canadian Single Payer: Show health card, get health care paid for by taxes. No deductibles on basic Canadian health care, and co-pays are extremely low or non-existent.
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Canada passes US in middle-class wealth. Median after-tax middle-class income in Canada is higher. [128]. Why? Canadians pay so much less for far better healthcare. And: Canada has higher minimum wage.
The $0 Alternative To Trumpcare. See chart below. USA versus top ten healthiest nations.
Universal healthcare and longer life, at half the cost of US healthcare.
 Wikipedia country lists: Life expectancy. |
Portugal decriminalised drugs 14 years ago – and now hardly anyone dies from overdosing. 2015 article by Chris Ingraham. Chart below is from the article.
"The country has 3 overdose deaths per million citizens, compared to the EU average of 17.3."
In 2014 the USA had 147 overdose deaths per million people. [129] [130] [131] [132]
Overdose Deaths Involving Opioids, United States, 2000-2015. Deaths per 100,000. Multiply by 10 to get deaths per million people. Source.
- Overdose stats for the rest of the world.
- Wikipedia charts: Drug-related death statistics. See the upload page.
US charts:
- Overdose Death Rates. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Charts.
- These Are the Drugs That Cause the Most Overdose Deaths. Chart.
- Our nation’s drug overdose problem, in five bleak charts.
- How the opioid epidemic became America’s worst drug crisis ever, in 15 maps and charts.
Ibogaine cure:
- Wikipedia: Ibogaine.
- Facebook: Ibogaine Universe!!!!
