Some simple numbers courtesy of the ACLU[1] "Marijuana arrests now account for over half of all drug arrests in the United States. Of the 8.2 million marijuana

Some simple numbers courtesy of the ACLU[1] "Marijuana arrests now account for over half of all drug arrests in the United States. Of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for simply having marijuana." So that's 7.2 million arrests simply for possession. In 2010 police arrested someone for weed-related things every 37 seconds. However it is important to note that an arrest is not a conviction. Most are fined or are placed into community supervision. About 40,000 inmates of state and federal prison have a current conviction involving marijuana. That's a lot, and there are likely a lot more that ended up in prison due to problems with having an arrest record (that should also be wiped imo) so that is a lower limit but the point is that overall - even without a ton of active prisoners there is still a massive effect of all those arrests. Also it's worth noting that black people are nearly 4 times as likely to be arrested for these things even though usage rates are the same across races. [1] https://www.aclu.org/gallery/marijuana-arrests-numbers https://www.aclu.org/gallery/marijuana-arrests-numbers