Ethics

Bloomberg and Pot in New York

By Ed Brayton

This is why I love Radley Balko's blog, for pointing out things like this:

New York City, home to admitted pot smoker (and pot enjoyer) Mayor Michael Bloomberg leads the world in marijuana arrests. Over 370,000 in the last decade for the lowest possible level marijuana offense. More than half were black, despite the fact that just 25 percent of the city is black, and that according to survey data, a higher percentage of white people actually use the drug.

The New York City ACLU says the discrepancy comes from the fact that minorities are much more likely than whites to be stopped and frisked. The end result is a much higher percentage of blacks than whites with a pot-related arrest record-and all that comes with that (including the loss of ever getting federal loans to go to college)-even though white people are more likely to actually use the drug.

And the excuse for all this: "Drugs are bad. Mmkay."

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on May 02, 2008 (boomark / email).