NORML REPORTS MARIJUANA ARRESTS HIGHEST EVER LAST YEAR According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws more people were arrested nationwide on marijuana charges last year than ever before. In 2005, 786,545 people were arrested on marijuana charges, about 15,000 more than 2004 and more than double than 1990. "These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre in a September NORML press release. "This effort is a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources that diverts law enforcement personnel away from focussing on serious and violent crime, including the war on terrorism." He said a marijuana smoker is arrested about every 40 seconds. About 88 percent of the 786,545 arrested last year were charged with possession, St. Pierre said. According to NORML, marijuana arrests outnumbered the total arrests for all violent crimes, including murder rape and robbery. "Enforcing marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers between $10 billion and $12 billion annually and has led to the arrests of 18 million Americans," St. Pierre said. "Arresting hundreds of thousands of American who smoke marijuana responsibly needlessly destroys the lives of otherwise law abiding citizens."

Pubdate: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 Source: Times-Standard (Eureka, CA) Copyright: 2006 MediaNews Group, Inc. Contact: editor@times-standard.com Website: http://www.times-standard.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1051 Author: Chris Durant, The Times-Standard Cited: The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws http://www.norml.org Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)__________________________________________________________________________ Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake