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I support the decriminalization of all drugs from both a libertarian and humanitarian perspective. That being said, the numbers geek inside of me always hates h
by zests 6y ago
I support the decriminalization of all drugs from both a libertarian and humanitarian perspective. That being said, the numbers geek inside of me always hates how out of context statistics usually are.
For instance, how do these rates compare to other drugs or other crimes? How do you determine whether or not there is similar drug usage across populations? (The answer is to claim that an equal number of people who have used at least once in the past year implies equal usage over the past year. Another frustrating use of numbers.)
But none of this really matters. Its a no-brainer. The war on drugs doesn't work. The real problem in my opinion is that people who don't use drugs usually have no reason to do anything about it. Decriminalize everything.
- dumbfoundded 6y agoI tried to keep these numbers within the context of cannabis. The 663K arrests in 2018 refer to cannabis only related arrests. The ACLU mentions how cannabis use is approximately equivalent between white and black people: https://norml.org/marijuana/fact-sheets/item/racial-disparity-in-marijuana-arrests https://norml.org/marijuana/fact-sheets/item/racial-disparit... Frequency is a hard one and can be muddled a bit. There isn't great data on the frequency or quality of usage of racial differences.