I can guarantee that this is not the entire story. Here, in Palo Alto, a Black man with marijuana rolled into joints* was once arrested and charged with possession for sale. I call it the, "Black man should not park at Palo Alto quick mart store," case.
If the police in New York City are using the same arrest methods, then many of the arrests for marijuana in NYC do not show up in the latest study. This is because the police decided to charge the person with possession for sale, rather than for simple possession. Such arrests were not counted in the 50,000 kids arrested each year for marijuana possession in NYC.
An arrest for possession with intent to sell puts the "crime" into a much more expensive legal action. So the amount of money NYC is spending on marijuana arrests is probably MUCH greater than $75 million per year.
The marijuana laws have ALWAYS been used as a way to keep "those people" in line. For "those people" you can substitute whatever group the media is using as the "bad guys".
Marijuana needs to be completely legal.
Personally, I have been dreaming of class actions regarding law enforcement use of the color of authority to violate civil rights. The Southern Poverty Law Center used to be really good at that sort of class action.
* A joint is old slang for a marijuana cigarette, rolled up and ready to smoke. The police theory is if the person has the marijuana rolled into joints it is obvious that the person is going to sell the joints to other people.
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