Every 45 Seconds an Arrest for Marijuana Takes Place in the US

Nearly 701,000 people were arrested in the US in 2014 for offenses related to marijuana. An alarming figure that exceeds that of 2013, when 693,000 people were arrested.

Although states like Colorado and Washington−where 10,000 and 6,000 people were arrested per year respectively for cannabis possession−have already legalized recreational marijuana, the number of arrests increase. A detention related to marijuana still occurs every 45 seconds.

"These numbers belie the myth that surprisingly no one is arrested for using marijuana," argues Mason Tvert, communications director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a non-profit organization that has been fighting for the regulation of marijuana for 20 years with both medicinal and recreational purposes.

Tvert has strongly criticized the fact that police arrest citizens for cannabis possession, at a time when fewer and fewer people believe it should be a crime. "Can you imagine if hundreds of thousands of adults had been arrested last year simply for alcohol possession? It would be crazy," criticizes the activist. "It's even crazier than hundreds of thousands of adults are arrested for possession of a less harmful substance."

Meanwhile, Tom Angell, president of the organization Marijuana Majority, has described as "unacceptable" the arrest of so many people when "an increasing majority of Americans think it should be legal" and has defended his hope that the number of arrests fall in the coming years.