Pot Bias: Black or White

I love the crazy stats that get funded and studied to be released to the public.  This one is interesting though, and follows up with my theme on police action in the world.

A look at booking stats for California’s 25 most-populated areas finds that in Los Angeles County African-Americans have a marijuana-possession arrest rate that’s 332 percent higher than that for whites.

The report, “Targeting Blacks For Marijuana,” was released this week and found that across those 25 largest counties the pot-holding arrest rate for blacks was often at least double that of whites despite evidence that indicates African-Americans use cannabis at a lower rate. In L.A. County the percentage was more than quadruple.

The Drug Policy Alliance, which conducted and released the report, is using it to lobby for the passage of Prop. 19, the November ballot initiative in California that would legalize the possession of up to one ounce of weed for those older than 21.   Read more

This drug policy seems to be specifically targeting blacks to be able to put more into the private corporate prison system.