USA - So how many people 'really' are in jail for simple pot possession?

[Greenport]

I bring this up because there is a serious information clash between the pro-drug and anti-drug people. The issue is that there is a serious difference between the claims that pro-pot organizations/people are making and the ones that the anti-pot organizations are making. This claim regards the number of people locked up for simple possession of marijuana, or marijuana related crimes.

The drug enforcement administration states on their website that only 186 people sentenced to federal court over drug charges in 2001 were for simple marijuana possession, citing a paper authored by the Office of National Drug Policy. Yet NORML.org states that 12 million people have been arrested for marijuana charges since 1965, and drugwarfacts.org states that in 2001, 641,109 people were arrested for simple possession of marijuana.

Someone's lying, or at least seriously stretching the truth. There needs to be an accurate count of the people who have been arrested for a simple marijuana possession charges, and 'marijuana-only' charges, so this propaganda on both sides can stop.

[drug-bot]

well theres a HUGE difference between being arrested, convicted, and sentenced/jailed.

[Sven99]

Would simple possession be more commonly dealt with at state level? That would explain why its uncommon in federal court.

[drug-bot]

Originally Posted by Sven99

Would simple possession be more commonly dealt with at state level? That would explain why its uncommon in federal court.

simple possesion is always dealt w/ in state court (provided it occured in a state). although if your cauught w/ pot or other any other drug at a national park or on any other federal property it goes directly to federal court were the penaltys are usually more severe.

[EyesOfTheWorld]

SWIM was caught several years ago with 1.5 lbs of ganja in his/her car trunk, and was told the case could go federal, simply due to the fact that the car in question had out of state plates, hence "Interstate Trafficking with Intent etc.." SWIM was facing 10 years, or at least that's what they tried to scare him/her with. Come SWIM's initial (state) court date, the amount of mj siezed had magically been reduced to under an oz. (SWIMthinks it was cops raiding the evidence room, but thank God for it). SWIM recieved a small state-level fine and was sent on his/her way.
So, in SWIMs opinion, most mj cases are dealt with in state courts, hence the figures quoted by "our side" are more accurate.

[Sven99]

The only possible reason they could have for putting the federal court numbers up instead of the total numbers is to make it appear that the numbers are much lower than they are.

But the DEA would never ever publish misleading statistics.. that would be wrong!