Public records have shown that the District of Columbia saw its arrests for the public use of marijuana almost triple last year.
According to the D.C. police arrest records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, there were more than 400 people arrested for publicly consuming marijuana in 2016. In 2015 there had only been 142 people arrested for the same thing.
It was that year that the use of marijuana became legal in the city. The sale of marijuana is still outlawed.
In 2016, 220 arrests were made for the distribution of marijuana. In 2015 the number had been 80.
All of the data include arrests by D.C. police and other law enforcement agencies in the city.
Adam Eidinger, the head of DCMJ has explained that, “A lot of it is people not realizing they can’t smoke in public. A lot of it is people who have no place else to go.”
Jonathan Smith is the executive director of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. The advocacy group has studied marijuana arrests before legalization. Smith said, “A rise in marijuana enforcement, especially at a time of historic and dropping levels of crime in the District, suggests a return to failed practices of over-policing and underserving communities of color.”
