Report: Big Disparity in Numbers of Blacks Arrested for Marijuana vs. Whites

A report by the New York Civil Liberties Union finds that black New Yorkers are nearly five times as likely to be arrested on low-level marijuana possession charges than whites, with the disparity even wider in the state’s most populous counties, reported the Gannett Albany.

The study, which is drawn from FBI data from 2001 through 2010, shows that New York state leads the nation in marijuana arrests, with 103,698 possession busts in 2010-- a rate that’s double the national average.

In New York, there are 535 arrests per 100,000 people, with black people 4.5 times more likely than any other group to be busted for pot. And in parts of New York City, they’re nine times more likely.

NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said that all across the state, police are targeting people of color for marijuana possessions arrests, a needless and harmful practice.

“Arresting and jailing thousands of people for possessing small amounts of marijuana does not make safer streets,” Lieberman said. “It only needlessly disrupts people’s lives and fosters distrust between the police and the communities they are sworn to serve.”