Data provided by the FBI this week finds that police arrested a quarter of a million Americans last year for violating marijuana laws!
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Yes, you read that correctly. Hundreds of thousands of people in the United States were placed in handcuffs in 2022 for possessing cannabis.
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That’s hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans stigmatized. That’s hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans traumatized. That’s hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans facing financial hardships and the loss of their liberties simply because they chose to consume a substance that is objectively safer than alcohol or tobacco.
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Have we made progress in our fight for legalization? Yes. Over the past decade, 23 states have ended arrests for the responsible use of cannabis by adults. As a result, arrests nationwide have fallen nearly four-fold from their peak in 2007 and 2008.
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But is there still work to be done? Obviously, the answer is yes.
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Even one marijuana possession arrest is one too many! Unfortunately, prohibitionists are pumping millions of dollars into defeating state and federal reforms that would stop the government from punishing people for a plant.
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NORML is committed to reforming marijuana laws so that responsible consumers will no longer live in fear of criminal arrest, prosecution, and stigmatization. We stand for the rights of consumers and for restoring freedoms to all Americans, regardless of where they live.
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We won’t rest until marijuana possession arrests fall to zero.
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