Author: Stephen Johnson / Source: Big Think
- Detox.net recently published maps that use the latest government data on drug use and arrests to show how enforcement varies across the country.
- Marijuana arrests remain significantly high in many states, even in some where pot’s legalized.
- Methamphetamine is, by far, the drug most commonly involved in drug-related offenses across the country.
American law enforcement agencies made 1.63 million arrests for drug law violations in 2017, according to FBI data. That’s nearly a 4 percent increase from 2016, and it breaks down to about one drug arrest every 20 seconds. About 85 percent of those arrests were for possession.
The 2017 National Drug Use And Health survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration shows that drug use and availability are on the rise across the country. At the state level, however, the data illustrate a varied and more nuanced picture.
Detox.net, an online addiction treatment resource owned by the company American Addictions Centers, recently published a report highlighting the different ways in which states charge and punish drug offenders.
In 30 states, methamphetamine was the drug most frequently involved in drug-related offenses for 2017.
That’s partly because meth is more tightly regulated, controlled and monitored than other drugs, as Dr. Stephen Pannel, medical director of Oxford Treatment Center in Mississippi, told Big Think.
“Crystal meth is the drug most frequently…
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