If you’re black in Minnesota, you’re six times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than your white counterparts, even though drug use rates are similar, according to a report released Monday.
The report by MN2020, which looked at FBI arrest data for 2011, showed that the racial disparity in marijuana possession arrests in Minnesota was more than twice the national average.
Though a possession arrest is a low-level offense, it can have long-lasting socioeconomic effects on individuals and families, the report said.
“In Minnesota, African Americans made up a little less than six percent of the population, but made up more than 27 percent of marijuana arrests,” MN2020 Executive Director Steve Fletcher said at a news conference Monday in front of the Hennepin County government center. “That kind of overrepresentation cannot be accounted for without racial bias. It means black Minnesotans are bearing a disproportionate share of the personal and collateral costs of our war on drugs.”
Fletcher and others, including the American Civil Liberties Union, are calling on lawmakers and law enforcement agencies to take a hard look at policies and to end the “structural racism” leading to the disparities, which aren’t limited to marijuana arrests.
“These disparities are largely a byproduct of a shift to preemptive, ‘broken windows’ policing, which concentrates on low-level offenses such as marijuana possession and other quality of life offenses, largely in communities of color and in poor communities,” said Teresa Nelson, legal director for the ACLU of Minnesota. “The ACLU advocates for changing policing models to more problem-oriented policing, which uses arrest as a last resort … and working with community-based organizations to address underlying problems and provide support services.”
Nelson said the issue will require a multi-faceted solution, including better police training on bias and racial profiling, better tracking and sharing of low-level arrest data, and marijuana policy reform.
“If full legalization … is not possible, we support full depenalization, which means mere possession will not be a citable offense and cannot be used as probable cause to stop and search someone,” Nelson said.
The full report can be viewed at mn2020.org.
Elizabeth Mohr can be reached at 651-228-5162. Follow her at twitter.com/LizMohr.
