NJ Marijuana Arrests ‘Soaring’ As Legalization Debate Continues

MONTCLAIR, NJ — Someone is arrested for marijuana possession in New Jersey every 15 minutes. And that startling number has only gotten worse over the past few years, according to civil rights advocates.

On Friday, the ACLU of New Jersey released a report that examined the state’s 2016 and 2017 crime data. Researchers found that – despite a growing chorus of voices calling for legalization and expungement – marijuana arrests have actually risen “dramatically” over the past few years.

Read the full report.

According to the ACLU-NJ:

“In 2017, New Jersey made 37,623 arrests for marijuana possession and distribution charges, going up nearly 35 percent from the 27,923 arrests made in 2013 on possession and distribution. According to the 2017 numbers, New Jersey averaged about 95 marijuana possession arrests per day, amounting to one arrest every 15 minutes. In contrast, ACLU-NJ’s [previous] report found that in 2013, New Jersey averaged 66 possession arrests statewide per day, or one arrest approximately every 21 minutes.”

Researchers said seven counties saw more than 2,000 marijuana possession arrests in 2017:

• Bergen County – 3,681
• Monmouth County – 3,351
• Middlesex County – 2,447
• Essex County – 2,356
• Camden – 2,290
• Union – 2,157
• Burlington – 2,139

“The slow-motion civil rights catastrophe of marijuana arrests must end, and it must end now,” ACLU-NJ Executive Director Amol Sinha said. “We know that black and brown communities have disproportionately borne the often-lifelong consequences an arrest wreaks on their employment prospects, their opportunities for education and their very future. We know that the costs of marijuana prohibition are too steep for New Jerseyans to continue to pay.”

That cost can run steep for people like Ahmad Reed, a New Jersey resident arrested for possessing eight bags of weed in 2015.

Reed – a husband and father – said that he's struggled to find decent work ever since, at times working temporary jobs that pay as little as $40 a day.

“My ability to support my family has been shattered,” Reed said. “It's hard to move forward.”

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• See related article: 'It's Hard To Move Forward,' Says NJ Father Arrested For Weed

RACIAL GAP FOR MARIJUANA ARRESTS

The ACLU-NJ said that – as in previous years – blacks stood almost a 3-to-1 higher chance of being arrested on a marijuana charge in New Jersey than whites in 2017.

When narrowed by county, the black-white racial disparities in arrests get even starker in some portions of the state, the group pointed out. Black people in Hunterdon County were 11 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people. In Ocean County, blacks were arrested at seven times the rate for possession. In Salem County, the disparity was six times the rate.

“Lawmakers have the power to begin the long journey of addressing New Jersey’s painful history of racism in law enforcement by legalizing cannabis before the end of this legislative session,” said the Rev. Charles Boyer, pastor of Bethel AME Church in Woodbury.

Boyer, the founding director of Salvation and Social Justice, and a member of the steering committee of New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform, said the Garden State cannot – and should not – wait any longer to legalize cannabis.

“In the span of these four years of data, support for legalization has grown to unprecedented heights – and yet arrest numbers have skyrocketed and racial disparities have persisted,” ACLU-NJ Policy Director Sarah Fajardo said.

“We described the marijuana numbers from 2013 as a civil rights crisis, and in the intervening years, that crisis has intensified,” Fajardo continued. “The ACLU-NJ’s data brief underscores what we already knew: Marijuana prohibition is emblematic of a criminal justice system with racism in its roots. To begin to reform that system, we have to pass legislation to legalize marijuana through a lens of racial justice, and we have to pass it now.”

Efforts to pass a recreational legalization bill earlier in the year fell about five votes short.

• See related article: NJ May Have Found A Way To Help Legalize Marijuana, Lawmakers Say
• See related article: Marijuana Justice Act Would Make Weed Legal In US
• See related article: New Jersey Marijuana Patients Offer Human Side To Weed Debate

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