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:
“Difference of opinion is the one crime which kings never forgive. An empire is an immense egotism.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“No punishment has ever possessed enough power of deterrence to prevent the commission of crimes. On the contrary, whatever the punishment, once a specific crime has appeared for the first time, its reappearance is more likely than its initial emergence could ever have been.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“Remember that it’s never a crime in the face of humanity and enlightenment to distribute the works of the great humanists among the merchants and moneychangers of this godforsaken country... You better slip me the dough.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)