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Friday, June 14, 2013

Area Police Say Alarming Pot Arrest Rates Are Misleading

OCEAN CITY -- An ACLU report released earlier this month lists Worcester County at more than eight times the national average for marijuana possession arrest rates, based on information collected by the FBI and census data for 2010. There is some disagreement, however, over how much that statistic is warped by the seasonal nature of the county and the huge population shifts it goes through from winter to summer.

According to the report, Worcester County had 2,132 marijuana possession arrests per 100,000 residents in 2010. That’s 8.3 times the national average and five times higher than the state average. The next closest county to Worcester’s rate mentioned in the report is Kleberg, Texas, which had roughly 800 less arrests per 100,000 than Worcester.

Local law enforcement advises readers to take those statistics with a grain of salt since the ACLU report doesn’t account for the huge population boom that Ocean City, and by proxy the county, goes through every summer.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who cares? Lets go after the real drugs, not marijuana.

Anonymous said...

OK, still doesn't negate that there were over 2100 ARRESTS per 100,000 residents during that time period. That's a lot folks...and last I checked, marijuana is still illegal.

Anonymous said...

The real drugs are manufactured by pharmaceutical giants and husseled by board certified doctors, legally acceptable to society. They're the real kingpins, not the street corner guy or the guy with a couple of ounces of pot.

Anonymous said...

The other thing that wasn't addressed and should be is if the pot charges were a secondary offense meaning the person was found to be in possession after they were apprehended for another crime.

Anonymous said...

1:26 I bet that is the case 90% percent of the time. The other "crime" being...headlight/tail light out, noise violation, not using a signal etc...

cover our tracks said...

Sheepie Sheepie Sheepie.

Anonymous said...

No what it really shows is how important marijuana arrests are to the counties bottom line. Look at their salaries. 1:21 summed it up exactly. We pay for a war on drugs that our government is on record planting, guarding, harvesting, and shipping opium out of Afghanistan and into your daughters veins. Before the "war on terror", Afghanistan accounted for around 9% worldwide opium production, now it accounts for a little over 90%. Drugs are illegal to control the market and fund black ops.