Crime
There have been over eight million cannabis arrests in the United States since 1993, including 786,545 arrests in 2005. About 88% of all marijuana arrests are for possession - not manufacture or distribution.
Although large-scale marijuana growing operations are frequently targeted by police in raids to attack the supply side and discourage the spread and marketing of the plant, the great majority of those arrested for cannabis are there for possession alone. However, in 1997, the vast majority of inmates in state prisons for marijuana related convictions were convicted of offenses other than simple possession.
According to the most recent Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, police arrested 847,864 persons for marijuana violations in 2008. Of those charged with marijuana violations, 754,224 were charged with possession only. The remaining 93,640 individuals were charged with "sale/manufacture," a category that does not differentiate for cultivation offenses, even those where the marijuana was being grown for personal or medical use. Marijuana arrests now comprise about one-half (49.8 percent) of all drug arrests reported in the United States.
Read more about this topic: Cannabis In The United States
Famous quotes containing the word crime:
“It is a crime to put a Roman citizen in chains, it is an enormity to flog one, sheer murder to slay one: what, then, shall I say of crucifixion? It is impossible to find the word for such an abomination.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“Lady Dellwyn ... for the first time began to entertain some suspicions that she had a heart to bestow. Not that she was actuated by that romantic passion which creates indifference to every other object and makes all happiness to consist in pleasing the beloved person, [but] only overstraining delicacy so much as to feel it almost a crime to charm any other.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“The disfranchisement of a single legal elector by fraud or intimidation is a crime too grave to be regarded lightly.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)