Currently, recreational cannabis is legal in 24 states and Washington, D.C., while medical marijuana use is permitted in 40 states. And while these updates to cannabis’s legality have led to reduced cannabis-related arrests, Black-White disparities in arrests have remained unchanged over the past decade, according to a new study led by Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Before legalization, Black Americans were significantly more likely than White Americans to be arrested for cannabis-related offenses like possession or sales, and that remains the case today. Notably, legalization has substantially reduced the volume of cannabis-related arrests for all Americans, but it has not changed the relative differences in arrests between racial groups.
Using data from 11 states over a 13-year period, the authors found arrests for cannabis possession dropped by 62 percent for White Americans and 51 percent for Black Americans. Cannabis sales arrests declined by 44 percent and 49 percent for the White and Black populations, respectively.
Legalization has also had an impact on overall drug-related crimes, with arrests for the sale of other illegal drugs dropping by 22 percent for White people and 17 percent for Black people. However, prison admissions for drug offenses declined by 34 percent for White Americans, but remained unchanged for Black Americans.
The authors stress that more must be done to mitigate these disparities. They call for broader reforms, such as record expungement, changes to law enforcement incentives, and targeted investments in communities harmed by prohibition.
