Report shows Alabama War on Drugs still raging

Thor Benson / Cannabis News Box Contributor

A report from the Southern Poverty Law Center shows the War on Drugs is still raging in Alabama, and it’s disproportionately harming people of color. According to the report, the state spent over $22 million policing cannabis in 2016 alone. Black residents were four times as likely to be arrested for cannabis crimes as white residents, despite having similar usage rates. The report indicates the state is using up valuable resources across the board to enforce cannabis laws.

“The $22 million drain on Alabama taxpayers yearly can be compared to the $1.3 billion revenue boon to taxpayers in Washington, Oregon, and Colorado after legalization was passed by ballot measure starting in 2012,” Shay Farley, Alabama policy counsel at the Southern Poverty Law Center, told Cannabis News Box. “Alabama would be well-served to decriminalize marijuana and focus resources on policing real threats to public safety.”

Farley said the way Alabama is handling drug enforcement “results in unequal rates of arrest, incarceration, and negative impacts.” Beyond black residents being four times as likely to be arrested for cannabis crimes as white residents, they are five times as likely to receive felony possession charges in the state.

“Higher arrest rates among minority populations are not reflective of increased prevalence of drug use, but rather of law enforcement’s focus on urban areas, lower income communities and communities of color,” Farley said.

What’s important to note is that spending all of this time and money on drug enforcement prevents Alabama law enforcement from focusing on more serious crimes, and it ties up resources while the state deals with these charges that could be used for important projects across the state. This drug enforcement effort has been a major drain on this state’s government.

“Our report found that Alabama’s underfunded forensic labs had about 10,000 pending marijuana cases, creating a 9 month waiting period for analyses of drug samples, as well as a backlog of 1,121 DNA tests, including 550 crimes against persons,” Farley said. “The continued criminalization of marijuana in Alabama not only fosters distrust of law enforcement in communities across Alabama, but it delays those law enforcement agencies from solving crimes where there’s actually a victim.”

Though many in Alabama support legalization, Republicans in the state have consistently blocked attempts to change laws relating to cannabis. This report seems to show that they’re not doing themselves or the public any favors.