A Black and White Issue: Report Finds Iowa Has Largest Racial Gap in U.S. for Marijuana Arrests

A new report from the American Civicl Liberties Union finds that blacks are much more likely than whites to get arrested for marijuana in the United States, even though usage rates are nearly the same. 

And, Iowa is the worst offender, according to the report "Billions of Dollars Wasted on Racially Biased Arrests." A black person in Iowa is over 8 times more likely to get arrested for marijuana than a white person, compared to a 3.7 gap nationally. 

According to the ACLU’s original analysis, marijuana arrests now account for over half of all drug arrests in the United States. Of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for simply having marijuana. Nationwide, the arrest data revealed one consistent trend: significant racial bias. Despite roughly equal usage rates, Blacks are 3.73 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana. 

The report, based on data from the FBI and Census Bureau, says there is a money-and-resource-sucking "war on marijuana" in the United States. Despite being a priority for police departments, the report states, the effort against marijuana has not only been unsuccessful but has "needlessly" funneled thousands of people into the criminal justice system.  

“These are devastating numbers,” Randall Wilson, legal director for the ACLU of Iowa, told the Des Moines Register. He noted that Iowa criminal justice advocates have long pointed out racial disparities in arrest and incarceration rates of blacks in Iowa. About one-quarter of Iowa’s prison population is black, even though blacks represent only 3.1 percent of the state’s general population.

The Register cited findings that Dubuque County, Woodbury County, Johnson County, Linn County, and Clinton County have the worst disparities among Iowa counties. Polk County, Iowa's largest, has a 5-to-1 gap between blacks and whites for marijuana possession arrests.