CA NORML Costs of ProhibitionCA NORML Costs of Prohibition
California reported 60,481 marijuana arrests in 2001. This represents a 3% decline from 2000, the second year in a row that arrests have decreased slightly. The decline was primarily due to an 8% drop in the number of felony arrests for distribution and cultivation to 11,986. The number of misdemeanor possession arrests declined slightly by 2% to 48,495.
The decline may reflect decreasing public concern about marijuana, as well as a growing population of legal medical marijuana users. California NORML estimates that there were over 30,000 legal Prop. 215 patients in the state as of May 2001, or 2% of the state's estimated population of 1.46 million monthly users.
The nation also registered a slight decline in marijuana arrests to 723,627 in 2001, 1% short of its all-time record high in 2000.
Blacks are heavily over-represented among California's arrestees, being almost five times as likely to be arrested for marijuana felonies than the general population.
California's per capita arrest rate for marijuana is 31% lower than the nation at large. Some 5.7% of all Californians have used marijuana in the past month, slightly more than the national average of 4.8%, according to surveys by SAMHSA.
| Marijuana Arrests 2001 |
Number
|
Male %
|
Female %
|
White %
|
Latino %
|
Black%
|
Other %
|
| Felony: adult |
9,991
|
89.0
|
11.0 |
36.7
|
26.1
|
32.7
|
4.2
|
| Felony: juvenile |
1,995
|
91.2
|
8.8
|
33.4
|
37.4
|
22.6
|
6.6
|
| Felony Total |
11,986
|
89.4 |
10.6
|
36.2
|
28.0
|
31.1
|
4.6
|
| Misdemeanor: adult |
33,941
|
89.2
|
10.8
|
43.5
|
31.2
|
20.8
|
4.4
|
| Misdemenor: juvenile |
14,544
|
85.4
|
14.6
|
40.0
|
44.3
|
10.7
|
5.1
|
| Misdemeanor. Total |
48,495 |
88.0
|
12.0 |
42.4
|
35.2
|
17.8
|
4.6
|
NOTE: The number of marijuana arrests in California climbed steadily until the enactment of the Moscone decriminalization act in 1976, which reduced possession from a felony to a misdemeanor. The Moscone Act is estimated to have saved the state some $100 million per year in arrest and court costs (Source: Aldrich & Mikuriya, "Savings in California Marijuana Law Enforcement Costs Attributable to the Moscone Act of 1976 - A Summary," Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 20(1): 75-81, 1988). Arrests have held more or less steady in recent years, following a dip around 1990 when marijuana was displaced by the crack cocaine epidemic.