The ACLU and Human Rights Watch (WHO) recently released a report detailing the casualties of our 45-year war on drugs. According to the report, over 137,000 people are in jail at any time because of a drug possession charge.
"Around the country, police make more arrests for drug possession than for any other crime," the report finds, citing FBI data. "More than one of every nine arrests by state law enforcement is for drug possession, amounting to more than 1.25 million arrests each year."
In fact, police make more arrests for marijuana possession alone than for all violent crimes combined.
The report finds that the laws are enforced unequally, too. Over their lifetimes, black and white Americans use illicit drugs at similar rates, according to federal data. But black adults were more than two-and-a-half times as likely to be arrested for drug possession.
The war on drugs is both a public health and social justice issue. Remember this when you go into the voting booth in a couple of weeks.