CANNAINVESTOR Magazine February / March 2017 | Page 79

# 3 Marijuana arrests among states are 80-90% simple possession charges.

These are not kingpin drug dealer arrests.

These are not violent, murderous thugs being imprisoned.

Most of the time, it's young respectable men arrested for a bag of weed in their pocket or car.

Simple traffic stops often escalate to arrests in highly targeted communities.

Non-violent people are locked up for simple marijuana possession. As they have been for years.

Worst of all, these arrests feed into a massive money-making system invisible to the public.

Defendants pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, fines, and tickets. But that’s just a small chunk of change compared to the long-term profits of prison.

The big money comes from keeping people locked up for years. It costs about $100,000 per year to keep someone incarcerated.

Which brings us to the source of the problem...

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