Joint Summit with President Choom

"Law enforcement resources would be better spent addressing serious crimes instead of arresting adults for using a substances objectively less harmful than alcohol."

Today is the Joint Summit with President Choom from 3:30 to 4:30 at the White House itself.  If you are in the D.C. area and support the cause it is a event not to be missed.  

In honor of this incredible show of civil disobedience we shall go over some of the statistics the drug war has lumped on us as a nation.  According to The Austin Chronicle:

From 2001-2010, a record 8 million people were arrested on marijuana charges, 88% for possession only, with blacks arrested far more often than are whites 

In 2010 alone, 750,000 arrests – nearly half of the 1.7 million drug arrests nationwide – were pot related. That's one arrest every 37 seconds, according to the report released this week.

After 40 years – and more than 40 million arrests total – pot-law enforcement has cost the U.S. more than $1 trillion; in just 2010, prohibition enforcement cost the U.S. – 50 states plus the District of Columbia – $3.6 billion, according to the report.

And these arrests – and associated costs – are felt even more strongly in minority communities: although blacks and whites use pot at roughly the same rate, across the country blacks are, on average, nearly four times as likely to be arrested on pot charges than are their white counterparts

In 2010:
New York - 103,000 arrest
Texas - 74,000 arrests  
Florida - 58,000 arrests
California 57,000 arrests
Illinois 50,000 arrest

"Legalization is the smartest and surest way to end targeted enforcement of marijuana laws in communities of color, and, moreover, would eliminate the costs of such enforcement while generating revenue for cash-strapped states,"