[dropcap size=big]C[/dropcap]alifornia legalized weed four years ago, but thousands of people—the vast majority of them people of color—are still being arrested for possessing, consuming, and selling cannabis unlawfully. As of mid-October, over 75 percent of the people that the Los Angeles Police Department arrested for cannabis-related offenses were Black or Latino, according to LAPD records obtained by L.A. Taco. More Black people have been arrested for cannabis this year as of October than all of last year.
Over the summer, Crosstown and Filter Mag reported that over 600 people were arrested for cannabis last year based on data from an L.A. City-run database that tracks cannabis arrests dating back to 2010. L.A. Taco found through a public records request, however, that hundreds of more people have been arrested for cannabis since 2019.
The Numbers
Despite representing less than 10 percent of the city, over 400 Black people were arrested for cannabis last year, or 26 percent of all cannabis arrests that year. As of October 9, 2020, over 430 Blacks have been arrested for cannabis, or 35 percent of all cannabis arrests in the city this year—a 12 percent increase from 2019.
In 2019, over 1500 people were arrested for cannabis-related crimes, 54 percent were Latino. This year, over 425 Latinos have been arrested for cannabis or 38 percent of all arrests, a 20 percent decrease from the previous year. Roughly half the population in Los Angeles identifies as Latino or Hispanic.