<img attachment="apg_marijuana_070727_ms.jpg" align="left" class="frame">According to a <a href="http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/">Division of Criminal Justice Services</a> (DCJS) study, the New York Police Department (NYPD) has busted over 400,000 people in the last decade for marijuana possession. That makes it the center of the drug war, according to <a href="http://wcbstv.com/local/nyc.marijuana.arrests.2.711645.html" source="wcbstv" title="NYCLU: City Now World's 'Marijuana Arrest Capital' Report: Racial Profiling A Fact Of Life; NYPD Disagrees">NYCLU: City Now World's 'Marijuana Arrest Capital'</a>. According to <a href="http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/36/3651000.html" source="U.S. Census Bureau">State & County QuickFacts</a>, New York City (NYC) had a population of just over eight million people in 2003<fn>. Also according to the census of 2000, 44.7% of NYC identified as Caucasian, while 26.6% identified as Black or African-American descent. People of Hispanic descent were not tracked in 2000; Asians totaled 9.8%. However, in the study totaling marijuana arrests, <iq>52% of the suspects were black, 31% Hispanic and only 15% white.</iq> That's just incredible; black people are twice as likely to smoke marijuana as white people, who barely seem to like the stuff at all. Hispanics, who totalled 0% of the population in 2000, smoke the stuff like fiends and accounted for almost 1/3 of all arrests. The NYPD reassured with a typically calm and measured statement, attacking the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) for trying <iq>to mislead the public with absurdly inflated numbers and false claims about bias.</iq> In the typical style of today, instead of disputing the numbers, the NYPD accused the messenger (the NYCLU, in this case) of having an agenda, namely that they are <iq>advocate[s] for marijuana legalization</iq>. That may very well be, but it has nothing to do with whether or not the numbers are correct or not. As mentioned in the article, the statistics are provided by the DCJS, an official state organization much more closely tied to the police department than to any civil liberties advocates. Are the numbers actually inflated? Will the NYPD offer an explanation of where they think the reasoning or statistics was faulty? Or will they just scream blue murder at the top of their lungs to distract from the ugly facts? If you're going to wait in eager anticipation for reasoned discussion instead of hyperbole, it is strongly advised that you refrain from holding your breath. <hr> <ft>Which was five years ago and falls right in the middle of the drug arrests data set covered in the article.</ft> <ft>Accounting for only 1/3 of the arrests expected by population numbers alone. The discrepancy can best be explained by either (A), a bias on the part of the NYPD or (B), a predilection on the part of black people for smoking reefer and a near-puritanical abnegation of the same by whites.</ft>