Whites Smoke Pot, but Blacks Are Arrested

Although blacks and Hispanics tend to try drugs for the first time at a slightly younger age than whites, by the end of high school, whites have caught up and surpassed them in every drug category. White seniors are a third more likely to have smoked pot in the past year, seven times more likely to have used cocaine, three times more likely to have used heroin, and nine times more likely to have used LSD. And it's not just that there are more white users, as this would reflect mere population percentages, but rather, that the white rate of use is that much higher than the rate for blacks.

It's the same story for young adults. Whites are 66 percent of 18-25 year olds, but 70 percent of drug users that age. Blacks are 13.5 percent of persons in that age cohort, but only 13 percent of young adult users, while Hispanics are nearly 15 percent of that age group, but only 12 percent of drug users 18-25.

Of nearly 250,000 state inmates serving time for drug offenses in 2004, 113,000 (or 45% ) were blacks compared to 66,000, (or 26% ) whites and 52,000, (or 21% ) Hispanics.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the 1950s, the Boggs Act penalized first-time possession of marijuana or heroin with a sentence of two to five years in prison—a pretty stiff penalty. The perception at the time was that marijuana was largely smoked by African-Americans and Mexicans, and was used frequently by jazz musicians.

However, when college campuses in the 60s were flooded with youthful pot smokers who were predominantly white, public attitudes began to change quickly. Marijuana came to be seen as a harmless drug, one that was not addictive and did not particularly lead to other criminal behavior.

Many states and localities revised their laws and some communities all but decriminalized possession of small quantities. As whites became a larger portion of the user population and replaced blacks in the public image of the pot user, public policies changed rapidly in a more understanding and less punitive direction.

Drunk drivers — 78% of who in a 1990 study were white— were generally charged as misdemeanants and typically receive sentences involving fines, license suspension, and community service. By contrast, those convicted of drug possession—who are disproportionately low-income, Afro-American, and Hispanic, are usually charged with felonies and frequently sentenced to incarceration.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Communities that feel a sense of commitment to their members are able to see the humanity of offenders despite their criminal behaviors and to see the potential for positive change in their lives.
 
^^^ good post. Do you have a source for this data? I am not saying I disbelieve you; but rather, it occurred to me that someone might ask.
 
Well i was in Manhattan central booking and I talked to 2 kids about the same age(20's) who were there for pot. 1 Kid was white and had an 8th, the other kid was black and was caught with a roach. Though I've personally never been sent to bookings for weed, I have had black people talk about how they have. It's fucking bullshit and Bloomberg is a fucking jerk off.
 
Statistical analysis of arrests needs to take into account users relative discretion or non-discretion in their use. I'm far from New York, bu int my community non-whites are arrested more often because they are more likely to do drug transactions or partake in drugs in public. I'd prefer drugs were legal. I'm no big fan of my local law enforcement nor will I claim they are trying to be fair or ethnically sensitive. I do think when it comes to drug arrests they go for people who are out in the open or flagrant about it. My observations are that obvious, in public drug transactions are most often by non-whites in my neighborhood. More arrests in my neighborhood of non-whites does not show racism in my opinion but police going for easy pickings. Why would any one strain themselves reaching for the difficult and uncertain when you have substantive and tangible right in front of you.

“Marijuana arrests — which rarely lead to jail — are concentrated in neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of violent crime because that’s where the police focus their attention in order to reduce victimization,” Mr. Feinblatt said. “This continued focus on low-level offending has been part of the city’s effective crime-reduction strategy, which has resulted in a 35 percent decrease in crime since 2001."
Click to expand...
I don't know about the causality with 35% lower crime but it does make sense for police presence to be focused in high violent crime areas. When people use casually and publicly in an area with heightened police presence things often turn out badly. I'd suggest discretion in using any drug anywhere, even marijuana for an authorized medical user in states with legalized medical marijuana. Always best to avoid imperial entanglements.
 
it generally has nothing to do with race, maybe a few arrests a year do but the vast majority are not race related, it is crime related and while a graphic artist or white college kid smokes pot he breaks one law maybe two in relation to his pot smoking........trafficers,dealers,people in dealers and wholesalers hoods, and people who ride around in flashy-please-arrest-me-cars-im-a-drug-dealer-or-at-least-i-act-and-look-like-one are usually a minority.... im not defending any rasism that exits im just pointing out that you post is very,very,unfounded and bias with slanted stats......not only am i a head shop manager i am half mexican, and i grew up in a black hood......those minorities get arrested more because they place themselves in disadvantageous situations and dont have demeanors that scream im nice please like me,they have "fukkk you dont dis me" demeanors.........just sayin thats my .02 and in the future take in all variables when assesing your ideals not just convinient ones
 
i only say this because if we are going to get anywhere with politicians and legalizing weed or even just gettin more states to use M.M. than arguements need to be made to where they are not shot down before they gain momentum, concentrate on tax money wasted and actual scientific evidence that dismisses transparent predjudice or makes beliefs of cannabis from FDA and DEA look wrong or naive. playing on issues((like any issues that have nothing to do with the DEA schelduling process or FDA system of approval or disapproval or unregulation)) that make us all look like we are posturing with slanted stats will trivialize our hope one day, and trivialize all of us in the eyes of the law makers, law enforcement and most importantly the AMERICAN public
 
People are neglecting that black people also to lots of dumb ass shit in connection to their drug activity and other hustles, and are a lot more high profile about that kinda thing. I mean how many open air white drug markets are there vs. black ones? And look how many bodies black people drop compared (proportionately) to white people. Police don't look at black people more just because they are just so f'n fascinating to watch...

Black people are more likely to commit a variety of crime, that is the common perception throughout the world...hell even Jesse Jackson says he feels safer encountering a strange group of white guys as opposed to strange group of black guys...
 
im black and sorry everyone but i see my niggas do way more crimes than whites..sorry to all my niggas who are gonna trip on me for this..but you guys do some dumb shit...
 
im white and have lived in new york for the majority of my life, and not in an affluent or predominantly white area either i might add. my perspective seems to coincide with that of flacky's in that the reason the arrests are disproportionate is because of the allocation of the police force.

You're going to see more arrests in general one one side of queens in queens village than you will in bayside, simply because its two different precincts.

Ask any young person in ny who lives in a not-so-good neighborhood to name the precincts that are most likely to arrest you and you will hear the same answers over and over... its no coincidence, these precincts are in 'high crime areas' and stop everyone just to see if they have knives and guns and whatnot...

I cannot tell you how many times i've seen friends stopped for smoking and police just keep searching after finding bud because they are operating under the assumption that there are bigger things taking place here... the easiest way to be safe is to just not get caught. most people i know go to rich neighborhoods to smoke because there is little to no police presence or a private police force that has no right to actually apprehend you.
 
flacky said:
Well, you guys skimmed over a basic truth.



The majority of arrests are arrests of minorities. This is true because the majority of policing happens in minority neighborhoods. The majority of policing happens in minority neighborhoods because that's where the most crime is.

Statistically speaking, the majority of people arrested for smoking pot should obviously be minorities.

It has little to do with racism and more to do with the distribution of the police force.
Click to expand...

this. yes i agree that originally it had a lot to do with racism as history has often shown, but police are sent where they are needed.

gangsta's. word of advice, just smoke your blunt before you go out bangin, then have your homies roll one (or 8 for all i care) up when u get back to the trap house. its the only way to get around it.
 
im white and i got arrested for possession of a dime and drug paraphernalia and i live in NC so its happening to white people too
 
dch25 said:
im white and i got arrested for possession of a dime and drug paraphernalia and i live in NC so its happening to white people too
Click to expand...

Yes, clearly ONE white person being arrested somewhere for smoking wed is an indication that in fact, the system is not racist against black people.

In other news, there days ago I was polite and friendly toward a gay couple. Let's all celebrate the end of the hate and discrimination toward homosexuals.


(Note - Some people on this site are too stupid to pick up on sarcasm. If you are one of those people - I am being sarcastic in the above two sentences.)
 
chainer3k said:
It only makes sense as they were largely created by racism... or so this is what I understand, I'm no history major.
Click to expand...
prohibition ended, and a lot of corrupt politicians (eg anslinger) needed a way out. so instead of the public backlash of arresting drunks, they illegalized drugs. mexicans were raping white women on pot. cocaine could cause a negro to take 5 bullets to take down on a rampage (they actually switched to higher calibre bullets:!) opium dens were asian men gettin high seducing white women. *** ACCORDING TO THE MEDIA. and don't get me started on pot, go read Charles Whitebreads speech to a police conference about prohibition

entire ethnic neighborhoods ahve been turned into ghost towns. never would happen to a white neighborhood, even though scientific studies show the SAME rate of use, even somewhat higher use among whites now in dealing drugs

but we're still getting the colored folk. we don't just need "incumbents out!" we need "PIGS OUT!"
flacky said:
Well, you guys skimmed over a basic truth.



The majority of arrests are arrests of minorities. This is true because the majority of policing happens in minority neighborhoods. The majority of policing happens in minority neighborhoods because that's where the most crime is.

Statistically speaking, the majority of people arrested for smoking pot should obviously be minorities.

It has little to do with racism and more to do with the distribution of the police force.
Click to expand...
it does have to do with racism, but you're right that it's indirectly related to racism. blacks as a people have been pushed into certain residential areas for good (bad) reason. et al et al

we make a lot of money with this drug trade, and as along as we leave whites alone, we'll be oblivious to all of this wasteful destruction

for the history of prohibition, trust me, this is one of the most interesting docs ive ever read. he is a professor of law, USC

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/whiteb1.htm
 
Bring back ED Koch. I saw him on Saturday Night live- seemed like a chill guy. During his tenure, NYC was at an artistic, psycho chemical, and over all hip city high, then came Giuliani. I almost got my wallet stolen in 2000 in plain view of cops during his rein despite his best efforts- seems their putting their resources in the wrong place.

As far as cannabis laws and the stamp act, they were motivated by another Rudolf, Rudolf Hearst. They were deeply rooted in rascism. According to the history channel, even Anslinger didn't support a federal ban at 1st. He was suprised why such a wealthy man as Hearst devoted so much attention to the issue. On a trip to DC, Aslinger got out of his car and saw hemp as far as they eye could see lining the Potomac. But good bureacrat that he was, got behind the Tax Act of 37'. The western states had been outlawing cannabis because they wanted an excuse to deport mexican immigrants. This was on the history channel a couple of weeks ago.

Drug laws may have been rooted in rascism but fundamentally at their core they resemble racism in that it is a form of intolerance of people who have a different opinion of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and how they should be obtained. Like cigarette smoking bans, it makes the non smokers, no users, ect... feel a sort of moral superiority. We, drug users former and current are the new oppressed!- and the people have given the state the mandate. As for the racists, they can oppress minorities using these drug laws. This is why we have to spread the truth about prohibition and support candidates like Ron Paul and the more enlightened republicans who want change (and the whole Libertarian Party).
 
The page is white

I realize this is an older thread, and I realize that my opinion won't be a popular one (judging by the opinions posted here.)

"Whites smoke pot, but blacks are arrested." Okay. First of all, to imply that only whites smoke pot is pretty ridiculous. Surely it's not being suggested that only whites smoke pot but blacks are being arrested for the white man's "crime"? And yes, blacks ARE arrested. But I see no citation, nor have I ever seen any evidence that blacks are unlawfully targeted for smoking marijuana... not even close! I do see a larger number of blacks arrested for selling... but not pot and not pills. I see at least as many, if not more (probably more, I'm thinking) whites being arrested for harvesting and selling marijuana and pills than blacks... a LOT more! And I also see more blacks arrested for selling crack. And you know, sometimes you just have to look at this kind of "news" as -- well, it is what it is. If one group seems to be getting busted for doing an activity more than another, it may well be that they're DOING IT MORE than the other group. Why does everything have to be racial? I'm so sick of this crap, I really am. (I would say, "sometimes you've just got to call a spade a spade!" But of course, that would be "racist"...)

And as far as racial profiling in finding employment and losing jobs and such... oh please! The first "job" I ever had was in the USAF. All I can comment on is what I've seen firsthand. And honestly, I have no idea how some of those in my flight made it through boot. Spending KP duty on the toilet with "stomach cramps" that magically disappeared when chow time and cleanup was over. Forming groups, "cliques" as you say, among themselves. Now, I can see that in high school or other social situations, but we were supposed to be learning that we were a team, a team who's members could count on one another when it counted. HAD to count on one another. Of the 60 airmen in my flight, 16 were black. And with the exception of two, the others couldn't be counted on for ANYthing. They never pulled their weight in group activities, they feigned illness on a daily basis, and they brought morale down like you would not believe. Thank God I never had to depend on any of of them when it really mattered.

I remember working for a company who had to (yeah, they HAD to) employ x number of blacks because it was, quite simply, the law. I overheard my direct manager talking about her reluctance to do so, and I was thinking, "that's just not right" -- to not want to hire someone simply because of their skin color. So they hired a young lady, black, who I was to train. She seemed like a bright person, and I predicted she would be an excellent addition to our team. I was wrong. This post is far too long, but suffice it's to say, just being with her eight hours a day was so frustrating... she treated the white customers markedly worse than the black ones. Complaints came rolling in almost immediately. One example: when handing back change to a customer, if it was a white person, she would slap the money down onto the counter, and I do mean SLAP! with a noise like that. This usually resulted in a "wtf" look by the customer, and there was nothing I could do but shrug sympathetically. So after enough of these complaints, the manager told her it just wasn't working out. And although she was on a 90-day probationary period, she threatened to sue, citing "racial discrimination." When it was just her and I working, she'd tell me would "own this place" when all was said and done. I kind of reminded her that security cameras were rolling when she refused to hand white people their change, and she said, "That's because these nails cost me $45 a week to have done. A brother gets that and doesn't try to ruin them by grabbing money out of my hand. Your kind (that's what she called white people, "my kind") purposely tries to break or chip my nails...everybody knows that!" Honest to God, that's what she said. In case anyone's interested - and no one is, probably - UPDATE: She was finally fired when management was looking at videotapes of the customer complains and they noticed a pair of women customers who came in only when this woman was working. They brought huge bags with them, and they literally cleaned the place out of that ready-made baby formula Similac. The outside cameras also caught another peculiar thing regarding these women: when they drove away (after openly acknowledging the woman who'd allowed them to do this - omg it was unbelievable.) Anyway, they didn't just drive away, but instead drove to the dumpster behind the store. So they positioned cameras back there. We figured they were maybe dumping their own garbage there so they wouldn't have to pay the city for garbage removal, something like that. But nope. This worker would casually drop cartons of Kools, as well as lighters, and various other goodies sold from behind the counter, into the trash. Then, when she took out the trash, she'd put the bag containing their stuff in a bag with a plastic milk-tote over it. So the "ladies" would drive back there, pick up that stash, and finally drive away. It wasn't even hidden that well, and it was so surreal to watch it on the tape. That explained why she was always so eager to take out the garbage, I remember thinking. When she was confronted and subsequently fired, she became indignant, even though the video was played for her. Obviously, she was compensated from her partners-in-crime, for she said that was the only way she could afford to live on what she was being paid, and that the company should expect that sort of thing if they were going to be so "stingy." I suppose it did not occur to her to work more than the 20 hours she did, or to work on, say, a Sunday (which she said she had a "right" to take off for religious reasons.) I kid you not.

A few weeks ago, there was a study -- you know, the one where kids were supposed to pick out the "good people" or "pretty people" and given a picture of people with skin tones from very light to very dark. And as a part of that survey, it was learned that while over 75% of kids (these were kids about six... old enough to tell the truth, too young to really think about why they should lie in the first place)... anyway, over 75% of white kids said their parents had "rarely/never" spoke to them about racial issues. They hadn't been taught to hate, they hadn't been taught not to; it just hadn't come up. And the exact opposite was true of black children: over 75% HAD been taught to question the actions and words of whites, that they were "different". They'd been taught about slavery (which is good, it's our history, but it's also a good way to instill hate in a child that age... a hatred that will follow them for a lifetime. A lifetime in which the notion that whites are "bad" will undoubtedly be handed down to countless generations.)

I wish I had a citation, or a number at least, of how many frivolous lawsuits are brought on by blacks because this thing or that thing was done to them because of their color. I'm sick of Tawana Brawleys. I'm sick of Sharpton and Jackson who spew hatred far more than any white person I've ever known.

Like I said earlier, all I can comment on is what I've lived, what I've seen. And I know only three people who actively sell crack in my town. All three are black, and the neighborhood in which they reside is completely black... all one has to do is drive into their projects (and that's what they are, they're the "projects" -- what folks around here call government housing apartment-type communities) and they'll be approached by blacks selling everything from dimes of weed to all the rock a person wants.

Lastly, let me say this. I was meeting a guy a few years ago for a "business deal". We met at a convenience store. He then ripped me off for $60, and as he walked back to his car (hand on his hidden "piece" to ensure I wasn't going to protest; I wasn't) I wasn't going to lose my life over $60, but I said, "Dude, why would you do that, I thought we were cool?" And he goes, "Read a f'n history book. Payback's a b*tch!"

Racism is alive and well in America. But make no mistake, it's not the whites who practice it. And with parents teaching their children to use their color to "get back" at the white man for what "he done" to their race, it's never, ever going to stop.

/apologize for the rant :!
//but I know what I know
 
jspun said:
Bring back ED Koch. I saw him on Saturday Night live- seemed like a chill guy. During his tenure, NYC was at an artistic, psycho chemical, and over all hip city high, then came Giuliani. I almost got my wallet stolen in 2000 in plain view of cops during his rein despite his best efforts- seems their putting their resources in the wrong place.

As far as cannabis laws and the stamp act, they were motivated by another Rudolf, Rudolf Hearst. They were deeply rooted in rascism. According to the history channel, even Anslinger didn't support a federal ban at 1st. He was suprised why such a wealthy man as Hearst devoted so much attention to the issue. On a trip to DC, Aslinger got out of his car and saw hemp as far as they eye could see lining the Potomac. But good bureacrat that he was, got behind the Tax Act of 37'. The western states had been outlawing cannabis because they wanted an excuse to deport mexican immigrants. This was on the history channel a couple of weeks ago.

Drug laws may have been rooted in rascism but fundamentally at their core they resemble racism in that it is a form of intolerance of people who have a different opinion of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and how they should be obtained. Like cigarette smoking bans, it makes the non smokers, no users, ect... feel a sort of moral superiority. We, drug users former and current are the new oppressed!- and the people have given the state the mandate. As for the racists, they can oppress minorities using these drug laws. This is why we have to spread the truth about prohibition and support candidates like Ron Paul and the more enlightened republicans who want change (and the whole Libertarian Party).
Click to expand...

Yes. Well said. Vote Libertarian.

People keep complaining about the status quo but few do anything about it. People only fight against the government when it tries to take away something they care about; then they say, "How can the government do this? Why do people allow this to happen?"

It happens because we as a society keep electing politicians who tell us what we can and cannot do. We need to fight all government oppression, not just when it directly affects us.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top