Targeting Blacks

for Marijuana
Possession Arrests
of African Americans
in California, 2004-08

________________________________________________________________

Prepared By

The Marijuana Arrest Research Project

Harry G. Levine, PhD

Sociology Department
Queens College
City University of New York
hglevine@Qc.edu

Jon B. Gettman, PhD

Criminal Justice Department
Shenandoah University, Winchester, VA

Loren Siegel, JD
LS Consulting, Brooklyn, NY
________________________________________________________________
About
The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is the nation's leading organization
promoting policy alternatives to the drug war that are grounded in
science, compassion, health and human rights

3470 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 618

Los Angeles, CA 90010
323.382.6400
la@drugpolicy.org

Contact:
Stephen Gutwillig
California State Director
sgutwillig@drugpolicy.org

Headquarters:
70 W. 36th Street, 16th Floor
New York, NY 10018
212.613.8020
www.drugpolicy.org

Cite as: Harry G. Levine, Jon B. Gettman, Loren Siegel. "Targeting

Credits Blacks for Marijuana: Possession Arrests of African Americans in
California, 2004-08.” Drug Policy Alliance, LA: June 2010.

We would like to thank: Joey Huddleston, Brian Scott, and Allison

Stouch, DPA fellows, Southern California; Anne Irwin, deputy public
defender in San Francisco; Greg Hoegee and Rigoberto Arrechiga,
deputy public defenders in Los Angeles County; Alice Huffman,
President, California State NAACP; Mauricio Garzon, Campaign
Coordinator, Tax Cannabis 2010; the members of the National
Black Police Association and its Executive Director, Ron Hampton;
the Open Society Foundations; Jamie Fellner and Human Rights
Watch for the title; Craig Reinarman, Professor, Department of
Sociology, University of California-Santa Cruz; Troy Duster,
Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California-
Berkeley; and especially Stephen Gutwillig, who supervised the
editing and production of this report.
Report Highlights: Targeting Blacks for Marijuana

x In every one of the 25 largest counties in California, blacks are

arrested for marijuana possession at higher rates than whites,
typically at double, triple or even quadruple the rate of whites.
(pages 6-8, 12)

x U.S. government studies consistently find that young blacks use

marijuana at lower rates than young whites. (pages 5)

x In Los Angeles County, with nearly ten million residents and over a
quarter of California's population, blacks are arrested at over triple
the rate of whites. Blacks are less than 10 percent of L.A. County’s
population, but they are 30 percent of the people arrested for
marijuana possession. (pages 6-8, 12)

x These racially-biased marijuana arrests are a system-wide

phenomenon, occurring in every county and nearly every police
department in California, and elsewhere. The arrests are not mainly
the result of personal bias or racism on the part of individual patrol
officers – who are doing what they are assigned to do.
(pages 9,11)

x Marijuana possession arrests have serious consequences. They

create permanent "drug arrest" records that can be easily found on
the Internet by employers, landlords, schools, credit agencies,
licensing boards, and banks. (pages 9-11)

x The "scarlet letter" stigma of criminal records for marijuana

possession can create barriers to employment and education for
anyone, including whites and middle class people. (pages 10-11)

x Criminal records for marijuana possession severely limit the life

chances of the poor, the young, and especially of young blacks and
Latinos. (pages 10-11)
Targeting Blacks for Marijuana
Possession Arrests of African Americans in California, 2004-08
!
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4
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Marijuana Use by Whites, Blacks and Latinos, Ages 18 to 25, 2002-2007

60%
Whites Blacks Latinos
50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
2002-03 2004-05 2006 2007 2002-03 2004-05 2006 2007 2002-03 2004-05 2006 2007

Ever Used Marijuana in Life Used Marijuana in Past Year Used Marijuana in Past Month
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Marijuana Use by Whites, Blacks and Latinos, Ages 12 to 17, 2004-2007

25%
Whites Blacks Latinos
20%

15%

10%

5%

0%
2004-2005 2006 2007 2004-2005 2006 2007

Used Marijuana in Past Year Used Marijuana in Past Month

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__________________________________________________________________________________________
5
Marijuana Possession Arrests in California's 25 Largest Counties
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6
__________________________________________________________________________________________

White and Black

Marijuana Possession Arrest Rates
in the 25 Largest Counties in California, 2004-08
White Marijuana Arrest Rate Per 100,000 Whites, 2004-08
Black Marijuana Arrest Rate Per 100,000 Blacks, 2004-08
Santa Cruz County
Sonoma County
Orange County
San Diego County
Santa Barbara County
Los Angeles County
Santa Clara County
Solano County
Fresno County
Placer County
Marin County
Monterey County
Sacramento County
San Bernardino County
Kern County
Riverside County
San Francisco County
San Mateo County
San Luis Obispo County
Stanislaus County
Ventura County
Alameda County
Tulare County
Contra Costa County
San Joaquin County

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600

Source: FBI / Uniform Crime Report County Arrest Data and U.S. Census Data. 5 year average: 2004-2008
Harry G. Levine, Sociology Department, Queens College, City University of New York, hglevine@Qc.edu
Jon B. Gettman, Criminal Justice Department, Shenandoah University, Winchester, VA
Loren Siegel, LS Consulting, Brooklyn, NY. June 2010

__________________________________________________________________________________________

7
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Black % of County Population and

Black % of Marijuana Possession Arrests
in the 25 Largest Counties in California, 2004-08
San Luis Obispo County

Ventura County

Tulare County Black % of County Population

Santa Cruz County Black % of Marijuana Possession Arrests
Santa Barbara County

Orange County

Placer County

Sonoma County

Stanislaus County

Marin County

Monterey County

San Mateo County

Santa Clara County

San Joaquin County

Riverside County

Fresno County

Kern County

San Diego County

San Bernardino County

Contra Costa County

Alameda County

Los Angeles County

San Francisco County

Sacramento County

Solano County

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Source: FBI / Uniform Crime Report County Arrest Data and U.S. Census Data. 5 year average: 2004-2008
Harry G. Levine, Sociology Department, Queens College, City University of New York, hglevine@Qc.edu
Jon B. Gettman, Criminal Justice Department, Shenandoah University, Winchester, VA
Loren Siegel, LS Consulting, Brooklyn, NY. June 2010

__________________________________________________________________________________________

8
Racially-Biased Marijuana Arrests as a System-Wide Phenomenon
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Marijuana Possession Arrests Have Serious Consequences

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9
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10
End Notes
1
In this report we use the terms black and African American interchangeably. In California most people coded by the
police as black are African American, but some are immigrants from the Caribbean, Africa and elsewhere.
2
Daniel Macallair and Mike Males, "Marijuana Arrests and California’s Drug War: A Report to the California
Legislature." Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, San Francisco, Ca, October 2009.
At: http://www.cjcj.org/files/Marijuana_Arrests_and_Californias_Drug_War.pdf
3
We are working on a follow up report using California state data to focus on the marijuana possession arrests of Latinos.
4
The arrest rate is calculated by dividing the number of arrests of a group by the population of that group times 100,000.
5
The logic of police patrol and arrest processes for marijuana possession and other misdemeanors is described in:
Harry G. Levine and Deborah P. Small, Marijuana Arrest Crusade: Racial Bias and Police Policy in New York City,
1997-2007 NYCLU, 2009. At: http://www.nyclu.org/files/MARIJUANA-ARREST-CRUSADE_Final.pdf.
Also see: Jim Dwyer. "Whites Smoke Pot, but Blacks Are Arrested." NY Times. Dec 23, 2009. At:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/nyregion/23about.html?_r=1
Patrol and narcotics police, and their immediate supervisors, often face enormous pressure to meet arrest and ticket
quotas – sometimes termed "performance guidelines." Making marijuana arrests, including by writing court
summonses, are a relatively safe and easy way for police to meet their quotas. Arrests, quotas and their importance for
patrol and narcotics police and their supervisors is discussed in Marijuana Arrest Crusade, cited above. For a detailed
and chilling example of the pressure put on patrol officers to meet arrest and ticket quotas, see: Graham Rayman, "The
NYPD Tapes: Inside Bed-Stuy's 81st Precinct," The Village Voice, May 4, 2010.
At: http://www.villagevoice.com/content/printVersion/1797847
6
Representatives of police departments and prosecutors will sometimes tell the media that marijuana possession
arrests reduce serious crime. We have found no study to support that claim, and some researchers have found the
opposite. In their report, Macallair and Males (cited above) write: "Counties with high rates of marijuana possession
arrests had about the same rates of crime clearance [making an arrest] as those with low marijuana arrest rates,
indicating that arresting more people for marijuana neither detracts from nor enhances the ability of police agencies to
solve more serious offenses. Nor do marijuana arrest rates seem connected to a county’s overall crime rate....
Counties with very similar marijuana possession arrest rates (i.e., Santa Cruz and Merced, or San Bernardino and
Marin) have very different rates of violent, property, and other offenses."
For a sophisticated study of the impact of marijuana possession arrests on serious crime in New York City, by two
University of Chicago law professors, see: Bernard E. Harcourt and Jens Ludwig, "Reefer Madness: Broken Windows
Policing and Misdemeanor Marijuana Arrests in New York City, 1989-2000", Criminology and Public Policy 6:1, pp.
165-182, 2007. Available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=948753. The authors write: "We find
no good evidence that the MPV [marijuana possession] arrests are associated with reductions in serious violent or
property crimes in the city. As a result New York City’s marijuana policing strategy seems likely to simply divert scarce
police resources away from more effective approaches that research suggests is capable of reducing real crime.”
7
In addition to a $100 fine, misdemeanor marijuana possession offenders are subject to nine separate fees in the
California Penal and Business Codes. These assessments include a $30 flat fee “imposed on every conviction for a
criminal offense” and multiple assessments from $1 to $10 for every $10 of the base fine. If each of these assessments
were imposed, $360 in additional fees would accrue.
8
The discussion of the damaging effects of criminal records for marijuana possession is based on our ongoing
research in New York, California, and elsewhere in the U.S. For an overview of the spread and dangers of the online
criminal databases see: Hon. Cynthia Diane Stephens, "Keeping an Arrest from Resulting in a Life Sentence."
Michigan Bar Journal, Nov 2008. http://www.michbar.org/journal/pdf/pdf4article1433.pdf.
A simple Google search for the phase criminal database or criminal records will produce numerous links to firms,
some claiming that their searches are better than the others. Some offer "50 state searches" for as low as $12.95.
9
Representatives Steve Cohen and Sheila Jackson Lee used the phrase "scarlet letter" during a major hearing of the
Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Cohen repeatedly termed the stigmatizing effects of
criminal records for marijuana possession a type of "scarlet letter." "Unfairness In Federal Cocaine Sentencing: Is It
Time To Crack The 100 To 1 Disparity?" Hearing Before The Committee On The Judiciary House Of Representatives.
May 21, 2009. Pages 19-20. At: http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/printers/111th/111-27_49783.PDF. On the life-
damaging effects of drug arrests also see: Michelle Alexander,The New Jim Crow, New Press, 2009.
10
For an excellent, detailed discussion of the many costs and collateral consequences of policing focused on
misdemeanor arrests see: Babe Howell, "Broken Lives from Broken Windows: The Hidden Costs of Aggressive
Misdemeanor Policing." New York University Review of Law and Social Change, Vol. 33, No. 3, 2008.
At: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1307112

11
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Appendix:
Marijuana Possession Arrest Percentages
in the 25 Largest Counties in California,
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