Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 2015
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2015 Associated Press
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Kristen Wyatt, Associated Press

REPORT SAYS RACIAL DISPARITIES IN ARRESTS PERSIST WITH LEGAL POT

DENVER (AP) - The legalization of marijuana in Colorado hasn't solved 
the racial disparities in enforcement that drug-policy reformers had 
hoped to end, with blacks still far more likely than whites to be 
charged with pot-related crimes, a new report says.

The report, issued Wednesday by the pro-legalization Drug Policy 
Alliance, showed that marijuana arrests in Colorado all but stopped 
after voters made the drug legal in small amounts for those 21 and older.

But the report noted continuing racial disparities involving the 
marijuana crimes that remain, including public use and possession in 
excess of the 1-ounce limit.

The study examined drug arrests in all 64 Colorado counties for two 
years before and two years after legalization in 2012.

The total number of charges for cannabis possession, distribution, 
and cultivation plummeted almost 95 percent, from about 39,000 in 
2010 to just over 2,000 last year.

Even after legalization, blacks were more than twice as likely as 
whites to be charged with public use of marijuana. Blacks were also 
much more likely to be charged with illegal cultivation or possession 
of more than an ounce.

"Legalization is no panacea for the longtime issues that law 
enforcement had with the black and brown community," said Art Way, 
Drug Policy Alliance's Colorado director.
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