Blacks Face Bias in Marijuana Arrests

Waukesha County is among the top 15 counties in Wisconsin with the highest racial disparities in marijuana arrests.

Blacks are much more likely than whites to get arrested for marijuana nationwide, even though usage rates are nearly the same, according to a report by American Civil Liberties Union.

In Waukesha County, a black person is 12.7 times more likely to be arrested than a white person. In Milwaukee County, the disparity is 4.7; the national gap is 3.7. The numbers come from 2010 data from ACLU’s report "Billions of Dollars Wasted on Racially Biased Arrests."

Marijuana arrests make up more than half of all drug arrests in the United States, according to the ACLU report. "Of the 8.2 million marijuana arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for simply having marijuana," the website reports.