This is what the Drug War looks like in New York City.
From 1978 to 1996, there were 49,326 marijuana possession arrests, according to an analysis for the alliance done by Harry Levine, a sociology professor at Queens College and an expert on marijuana enforcement.
The increased enforcement, the policy alliance says, is due not to increasing consumption, but to harsher enforcement.
“Over the last 20 years, N.Y.P.D. has quietly made arrests for marijuana their top enforcement priority, without public acknowledgment or debate,” the group said.
There have been about 350,000 arrests for marijuana possession since Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took office in 2002, the policy alliance said.
Seventy percent of those arrested are younger than 30, and 86 percent are black or Latino, even though, according to the Drug Policy Group, “young whites use marijuana at higher rates.”
What a juicy issue for Democrats to run on. Do you think, given their current straightened circumstances, that they will pass up an opportunity to seriously hurt the Republicans with this issue? Me either.
Cross Posted at Power and Control