Evaluating the Drug War on Its 40th Birthday, by the Numbers

THE WAR ON DRUGS TURNS 40 WEED IS THE NEW CRACK OF ALL DRUG ARRESTS, NEARLY 50 PERCENT ARE FOR MARIJUANA. ARRESTS FOR DRUG ABUSE VIOLATIONS IN THE US, 2009 DRUG ABUSE VIOLATIONS: SALE/MANUFACTURING 10 18.4%- 7.1 % 6% 3.5 % 1.7% HEROIN, COCAINE, DERIVATIVES MARIJUANA SYNETHETIC, OTHER MANUFACTURED DRUGS 81.6% DRUG ABUSE VIOLATIONS: POSSESSION 50 45.6% 40 17.7 % 14.6 % 10 3.7 % OTHER HEROIN, COCAINE, DERIVATIVES SYNETHETIC, MANUFACTURED DRUGS MARIJUANA Because of rounding, the percentages may not add to 100. DRUG ABUSE VIOLATIONS: MARIJUANA POSSESSION, BY REGION NORTHEAST: 47% LA COUNTY IS LESS THAN 10% BLACK, BUT MORE THAN 30% OF THOSE ARRESTED FOR MARIJUANA POSSESSION ARE AFRICAN AMERICAN. Source: "Targeting Blacks for Marijuana: Possession Arrests of African Americans in California, 2004-08," Drug Policy Alliance, LA: June 2010. MIDWEST: 52.8% IN NYC, YOUNG WHITE WOMEN AND MEN SMOKE WEED ATA HIGHER RATE THAN THEIR BLACK AND BROWN COUNTERPARTS. YET THE NYPD IS 7 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO ARREST A WEST: 34.3% YOUNG BLACK PERSON AND NEARLY 4 SOUTH: 51.3% TIMES AS LIKELY TO ARREST A YOUNG LATINO FOR WEED POSSESSION. Source: "$75 Million a Year: The Cost of New York City's PossessionArrests," Drug Policy Alliance, NY: March 2011. Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation. Crime in the United States, 2009. Washington, DC: FBI 2010. WOMEN IN PRISON WOMEN ARE THE FASTEST GROWING SECTOR OF THE PRISON 43 POPULATION. SINCE 1977, THEIR NUMBERS HAVE GROWN BY 757 PERCENT. MORE THAN 50 PERCENT OF WOMEN IN JAIL SAY THEY'VE BEEN PHYSICALLY OR SEXUALLY ABUSED BEFORE THEIR IMPRISONMENT, COMPARED TO ABOUT 10 PERCENT OF MEN. number of states that don't require medical examinations as a part of prison prenatal AUTHORITIES ARE 3.8 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO INCARCERATE A care. BLACK WOMAN AND 1.6 TIMES MORE LIKELY 48 TO INCARCERATE A LATINO WOMAN THAN THEIR WHITE COUNTERPARTS. number of states that don't offer pregnant prisoners HIV screenings. 31 A BLACK WOMAN IS 4.8 TIMES MORE LIKELY THAN A WHITE states don't require input WOMAN TO BE SENT TO PRISON FOR A DRUG VIOLATION. from medical staff when deciding whether restraints like handcuffs, leg irons or waist chains will be used during labor, delivery and/or recovery. ALTHOUGH PREGNANT WHITE AND BLACK WOMEN TAKE DRUGS AT SIMILAR RATES, BLACK MOTHERS-TO-BE ARE 10 TIMES AS LIKELY TO BE REPORTED TO CHILD WELFARE FOR DRUG USE. Source: "Mothers Behind Bars," The Rebecca Project for Human Rights and National Women's Law Center: October 2010. Source: "Fact Sheet: Women, Prison and the Drug War," Drug Policy Alliance. PARENTS DON'T GO TO JAIL ALONE THERE ARE 2.7 MILLION CHILDREN WHO HAVE A PARENT BEHIND BARS AND 54 PERCENT OF INMATES ARE PARENTS WITH CHILDREN UNDER 18, INCLUDING MORE THAN 120,000 MOTHERS AND 1.1 MILLION FATHERS. WHILE ONE-THIRD OF INCARCERATED PARENTS ARE SERVING TIME FOR A VIOLENT CRIME, THE OFFENSES OF THE OTHER TWO-THIRDS WERE NON-VIOLENT, WITH MORE THAN ONE-QUARTER OF ALL CONVICTIONS COMING FROM DRUG OFFENSES. ALL TOLD, 1 PERCENT OF ALL CHILDREN CURRENTLY HAVE A PARENT SERVING TIME FOR A DRUG CRIME. 1 IN 9 BLACK CHILDREN (11.4 %) HAVE A PARENT INCARCERATED. IN 1980, .3 PERCENT OF BLACK CHILDREN HAD A PARENT INCARCERATED FOR A 1 IN 28 LATINO CHILDREN (3.5 %) NONVIOLENT DRUG OFFENSE. HAVE A PARENT INCARCERATED. BY 2008, 3.8 PERCENT DID IN 1980, .4 PERCENT OF LATINO CHILDREN HAD A PARENT INCARCERATED FOR A NONVIOLENT DRUG OFFENSE. BY 2008, 1 PERCENT DID 1 IN 57 WHITE CHILDREN (1.8 %) HAVE A PARENT INCARCERATED. 10% OF CHILDREN WITH MOTHERS IN 1980, .0 PERCENT OF WHITE INCARCERATED IN STATE PRISON CHILDREN HAD A PARENT ARE IN FOSTER HOMES OR INCARCERATED FOR NON- AGENCIES, AND 79% LIVE WITH A GRANDPARENT OR RELATIVE. VIOLENT DRUG OFFENSES. BY 2008, ONLY ,3 PERCENT DID. Source: "Collateral Costs: Incarceration's Effect on Economic Mobility," The Pew Charitable Trusts: September, 2010. DRUG TREATMENT NATIONWIDE, WHITE MEN AND WOMEN REPRESENT ALMOST 62% OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT ADMISSIONS. BLACKS MAKE UP 24% AND LATINOS LESS THAN 13%. Source: "Caught in the Net: The Impact of Drug Policies on Women and Families," Break the Chains, Brennan Center for Justice and ACLU Foundation: 2005. COLORLINES.com PERCENT PERCENT