Press Release – September 22, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 22, 2020
Contact:
Matthew Schweich
Campaign Director, South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws
Press Release:
New Report Finds One in 10 of All Arrests in South Dakota in 2018 Were for Marijuana
A new study analyzes 2007-2018 FBI arrest statistics and evaluates trends, racial disparities, and costs of marijuana arrests in South Dakota.
Read the key findings and full report here: sd2020.org/arrest-report
Sioux Falls, SD — South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, the 2020 ballot campaign backing Amendment A and Measure 26, has published a report analyzing marijuana arrests in South Dakota from 2007 through 2018. The report is based on statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program and is authored by Jonathan Gettman, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Shenandoah University.
The report notes that, “from 2009 to 2018, South Dakota law enforcement officers arrested 31,883 people for marijuana offenses, 95% of them for possession offenses.” The report also estimates costs to South Dakota associated with arresting and punishing individuals for marijuana offenses, including jail time. The 53-page document provides detailed data tables showing trends in arrests, racial disparities in arrest rates, and arrests by counties.
Brendan Johnson, former U.S. Attorney for South Dakota, will be at the campaign’s virtual press conference at 11 a.m. CT and commented, “This report is an indictment of the status quo when it comes to our marijuana laws in South Dakota. We’re upending thousands of lives through these arrests, which are often for very small amounts of marijuana. On top of that, we’re asking law enforcement to police adults’ marijuana use, which wastes time and resources that could be spent addressing more pressing public safety concerns.”
The report’s key findings include:
In 2018, roughly 10% of all arrests in South Dakota were marijuana-related.
The majority of low-level marijuana possession arrests involve seven grams of marijuana or less, and more than 40% of possession arrests were for one gram or less.
Ninety-eight percent (98.2%) of marijuana violations in South Dakota from 2007 to 2016 did not involve other criminal offenses. In addition, in 99.1% of marijuana arrests, no weapons were seized by police.
On average, the arrest rates for Native Americans and Black South Dakotans were over five times higher than for whites for the 10-year period from 2007 to 2018.
Based on the percentage of arrests made for marijuana compared to the overall law enforcement costs for South Dakota, the report estimates that each marijuana arrest costs the state approximately $4,000. Derived from this estimate and other findings of the report, marijuana arrests cost South Dakota taxpayers approximately $16 million in 2018.
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South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) is a registered South Dakota statewide ballot question committee.
