Though the medical marijuana industry in Massachusetts has yet to take off, the commonwealth is becoming a haven for pot smokers. No, recreational weed isn’t legal here like it is in Colorado and Washington and yes, it’s decriminalized and carries the weight of a $100 fine. As it so happens, then, the Bay State sees the lowest amount of marijuana-related arrests in the entire country.
The FBI and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration compiled state data from 2012 pertaining to substance abuse-related arrests. Massachusetts recorded just 275 detentions per 100,000 users who disobeyed state pot laws, equating to just 19 arrests per 100,000 total citizens. To put that in perspective, Illinois had the most with 30,758 per 100K users. New York was the second highest with 17,095.
Illinois’ and New York’s statistics make sense to a degree, given their massive metropolises of Chicago and New York City. But interestingly, the rest of the top ten highest arrest rates for marijuana use was rounded out by states in the Southeast and Midwest where populations are lower making ratios higher.
Louisiana tallied the third most marijuana arrests per 100K users followed by Mississippi, Maryland, Nebraska, Georgia, Tennessee, Wyoming and Kansas.
Massachusetts also ranked amongst the states with the lowest instances of drug arrests per 100K users, though did find itself in the company of heavy boozers. The commonwealth ranked 7th in terms of binge drinkers per 100K citizens with 21,612. Only North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota can throw more back than us. Perhaps that’s a good thing, though.
This could all change drastically in the upcoming years. Many states are making pushes to decriminalize marijuana as Massachusetts already did. Legalized weed advocates pushing for states to give the green light on the recreational variety have already undertaken a grassroots push to put it on the ballot for 2016.
h/t Huffington Post
