\u201cCannabis decriminalization was associated with substantially lower cannabis possession arrest rates among both adults and youths and among both Blacks and Whites\u2026 These findings suggested that cannabis decriminalization had its intended consequence of reducing arrests and may have potential to reduce racial disparity in arrests at least among adults.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, while it makes sense that arrests would decline after penalties for cannabis possession are lifted, the researchers couldn\u2019t say definitively why racial disparities declined too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is possible that law enforcement behaviors did not change: Blacks might still be more likely to be stopped, questioned, or searched for cannabis possession than Whites after decriminalization. But if these behaviors did not result in arrests because of decriminalization, racial disparity in arrest rates would still decline,\u201d they wrote. \u201cIt is also possible that Blacks were more likely to respond to decriminalization by possessing less cannabis below the threshold amount for the lowest level of criminal offense compared to Whites.\u201d<\/p>\n
A separate recent study in a major scientific journal published by the American Medical Association (JAMA) reached a similar conclusion when researchers investigated the impact of legalization and decriminalization on racial disparities<\/a> in arrests.<\/p>\n That analysis of arrests, which specifically focused on trends related to race, compared data from 2008 to 2019. The researchers from Eastern Virginia Medical School and Saint Louis University found that states that legalized cannabis saw 561 fewer arrests per 100,000 black people and 195 fewer arrests for white people on average over that time period.<\/p>\n Decriminalization, meanwhile, was associated with roughly 449 fewer arrests per 100,000 black people and a drop of 117 for white people.<\/p>\n Notably, that study also identified a difference in policy impacts for youth. Marijuana arrest data on adolescents indicated that young people faced a lower risk of being arrested under simple decriminalization as compared to legalization.<\/p>\n For those who\u2019ve followed cannabis policy and the racist impacts of the war on drugs, the findings from these studies aren\u2019t especially surprising.<\/p>\n Even the head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Nora Volkow, has repeatedly highlighted and criticized the racial disparities in drug criminalization enforcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n JAMA also published a study this year that finding<\/a> that youth marijuana use does not increase after states enact legalization for medical or recreational use, challenging another prohibitionist narrative.<\/p>\n Relatedly, a federally funded survey that was released this month determined that youth marijuana use \u201cdecreased significantly\u201d in 2021, as did teen consumption of illicit substances overall. That\u2019s despite the fact that more state cannabis legalization laws are being enacted and implemented across the country.<\/p>\n Mississippi Governor Suggests He\u2019ll Veto Medical Marijuana Bill If Lawmakers Don\u2019t Reduce Purchase Limit<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n
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