And now for another ditty from the Inequities of the Drug War File: According to a study soon to be published in the journal Criminology and Public Policy, African-Americans and Hispanics in New York City are far, far more likely to be arrested and convicted of minor pot-related offenses than are their white counterparts.

Investigators from NYC’s National Development Research Institute, a substance abuse issues think-tank, looked at pot arrest data covering 26 years (from 1980-2006) and discovered that a full 85% of those arrested for the most minor crimes – like toking up in public – were black or Hispanic. Together, those two groups make up about 50% of the city population.

According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, citywide, arrests for public smoking rose from less than 1,000 in 1980 to more than 51,000 in 2001; in 2006, NYC cops arrested some 32,000 people for smoking in public – 87% of them were black or Hispanic.

This article appears in March 9 • 2007.

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