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Even as more states legalize the use of marijuana and New Jersey residents prepare to vote on the issue in November, police continue to arrest Black people for weed possession at much higher rates than their white neighbors.
A report from the American Civil Liberties Union published this week found Black people across the country were 3.64 times more likely than white people to be arrested than white people, even though both groups use pot at similar rates.
The disparity in the Garden State has only worsened in recent years, with Black people 3.45 times more likely than white people to be arrested. That’s up from three times the rate of white arrests, which the ACLU found in its 2013 report.
To many advocates and stakeholders in the industry, the numbers do not come as a surprise.
"Knowledge of the disparities cannot eradicate them – only through legalization with a foundation of racial and social justice can we begin to right this wrong,” Amol Sinha, the executive director of the ALCU in New Jersey, said in a statement. "We need New Jersey voters to approve legalization, and we need the legislation that enacts it to put racial and social justice front and center.”
Eleven states and D.C. have legalized marijuana, and other states and cities have decriminalized its use. That led police to arrest fewer people in 2018 than 2010, according to the report, but similar rates of racial disparity lingered in those numbers.
For the interactive map, go to ACLU.org.
Legal weed advocates in New Jersey have long rallied against racial and social injustices that have stemmed from prohibition. A bill to legalize pot was pulled from the state Legislature in late 2019, but lawmakers have moved instead to place a question on the 2020 ballot allowing voters to choose. Some lawmakers began late last to consider a bill that would decriminalize possession of certain amounts of marijuana, a move that would have halted arrests ahead of the vote.
It has not moved through either branch of the Legislature to date.
But New Jersey did pass a law expanding and reforming the state’s overburdened expungement system. The changes allowed many with marijuana convictions to qualify for clean records. Still, it did nothing to stop new arrests.
Across the country, 692,965 people were arrested for marijuana offenses in 2018, 36,050 of whom were arrested in New Jersey. Marijuana arrests made up 55% of all drug arrests in the state.
The arrests included 13,484 Black people and 18,767 white people. But Black people make up just about 14% of the state’s population, while just over half of New Jersey residents are white.
Police have ramped up their arrests, even as the medical program grows and legalization has found increased popularity among voters. Between 2010 and 2018, the rate of pot possession rates climbed 45.6%, according to the report.
An analysis of New Jersey arrest data found that 15 of the state’s 21 counties have a higher rate of racial disparity in their arrests than the national average, with Hunterdon County showing the worst. There, a Black person is 13.7 times more likely to be arrested than a white person. Ocean and Morris Counties came next, with Black people 9.3 and 7.7 times more likely to be arrested, respectively.
The rate of disparity put New Jersey right in the middle of the country, ranking 25th in racial disparity in marijuana arrests. Montana fared the worst, while western states that have legalized marijuana, such as Washington, California and Colorado, had some of the lowest disparities.
But even neighboring Pennsylvania and New York, which have not yet legalized marijuana, fared better, ranking 36th and 40th.
Advocates say the numbers show the importance of taking a racial justice, rather than strictly entrepreneurial, approach to legalizing pot. Some, including members of the ACLU, have done so, launching NJ CAN 2020, a campaign coalition focused on passing racial and social justice-oriented marijuana reform.
“The disturbing facts of this report show that racial justice demands not only that we pass legalization on the ballot, but that we enact it through legislation that makes racial and social justice the top priority," said ACLU-NJ policy director Sarah Fajardo.
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Amanda Hoover may be reached at ahoover@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @amandahoovernj.