New arrest data released by the California Department of Justice shows that 2019 saw the lowest number of marijuana arrests since 1954, while at the same time racial disparities among those arrested showed an increase.
The data showed there were 1,181 felony marijuana arrests in California in 2019, down 27 percent from 2018 (1,617 arrests) and the lowest number since 1954.
Hispanics accounted for 493 or 41.7 percent of arrests; Blacks for 263 (22.3%) and Whites for 252 (21.3%).
Males were 87.9 percent of those arrested for felonies, and juvenile felony arrests numbered 91.
Misdemeanor marijuana arrests were down slightly in 2019. They numbered 3,769, versus 3,835 in 2018.
Hispanics were even more disproportionately arrested for misdemeanors, coming in at 1,869 or 49.6 percent of arrests, with Blacks accounting for 509 arrests (13.5%) and Whites 837 (22.2%).
Again males were most often arrested for marijuana misdemeanors (78.1%) with females arrested 21.9 percent of the time.
Juvenile misdemeanor arrests totaled 1,209 or 32 percent of the total.
In an analysis of the findings, California NORML said that, weighting the arrest data by population – using 2018 California Census data: 36.6 percent, non-Hispanic white, 5.8 percent Black and 39.3 percent Hispanic) – means that arrest disparities went up slightly for each race versus whites compared to the previous year.
Blacks were 4.47 times more likely than whites to be arrested for a marijuana crime in California in 2019, versus 4.05 times as often in 2018; for Latinx people the arrest disparity versus whites rose to 2.02 times in 2019 versus 1.66 times in 2018, NORML said.
A recent report by the ACLU found persistent racial disparities in marijuana possession arrests in all US states, including California, from the years 2010 to 2018.
In addition, NORML said two recent reports drilled down on arrest rates in cities and neighborhoods in California, finding arrest disparities between blacks and whites as high as 30 times, and large increases in police budgets in some cities due to local taxes collected from the sales of cannabis following the passage of Proposition 64, which legalized recreational marijuana for adults in 2016.
2019 felony marijuana arrests in California lowest since 1954; racial arrest disparities increase
- Lake County News reports
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