You may have heard that President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions are “re-starting” the drug war. More than four out of five of those arrests – 84.6%, or 1,330,401 arrests – were simply for drug possession. Marijuana arrests also increased – about 41% of all drug arrests were for marijuana, the vast majority for simple possession. Discriminatory enforcement of drug possession laws has produced profound racial and ethnic disparities at all levels of the criminal justice system. As overdose deaths skyrocket all over the U.S., people who need drug treatment or medical assistance may avoid it in order to hide their drug use.

Source: Huffington Post September 27, 2017 15:00 UTC