Report: Blacks in Dakota Co. Much More Likely to Be Arrested for Marijuana

Written by James Warden.

A new report from the American Civil Liberties Union finds that blacks are much more likely than whites to get arrested for marijuana in the United States, even though usage rates are nearly the same.

Minnesota has the third-worst gap between black and white arrests—and Dakota County's gap has doubled in the last decade.

Statewide, the arrest rate for blacks was 7.8 times the rate for whites. While whites had about 107 arrests per 100,000 people, blacks had 835 arrests per 100,000 people.

Use the map above to compare disparity among Minnesota Counties, according to ACLU data provided to Patch. 2010 data was not available for Clearwater County, Houston County, Lac qui Parle County, Marshall County, Red Lake County, Rock County, Sibley County, Traverse County and Yellow Medicine County.

The colors mean the following:

• Green: Blacks were between 0 and 3 times as likely to be arrested as whites
• Yellow: Blacks were between 3 and 10 times as likely to be arrested as whites
• Red: Blacks were 10 or more times as likely to be arrested as whites

In Dakota County, a black person is 5.6 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than whites. That’s twice the disparity as back in 2001, when the black rate was 2.3 times the white rate. Dakota County's swift-climbing disparity gives it the 11th-biggest percentage increase in the country among counties with more than 200,000 people and a black community that makes up more than 2 percent of the population.
Nationwide, blacks are 3.73 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana despite roughly equal usage rates.

The report, based on data from the FBI and Census Bureau, says there is a money-and-resource-sucking "war on marijuana" in the United States. Despite being a priority for police departments, the report states, the effort against marijuana has not only been unsuccessful but has "needlessly" funneled thousands of people into the criminal justice system. 

The report estimates that Minnesota spent $94.8 million enforcing marijuana possession laws in 2010.

According to the ACLU’s analysis, marijuana arrests now make up more than half of all drug arrests in the United States. In Minnesota, marijuana possession arrests made up 42.8 percent of drug arrests in 2010.

Of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests nationwide between 2001 and 2010, 88 percent were for simply having marijuana.