Analysis: Disparities in pot arrests reveal two Chicagos

When it comes to punishment for pot, where you are matters more than what you do according to a recently released Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy report.

For example, Fuller Park has a higher marijuana arrest rate than any other Chicago neighborhood. In this mostly African-American, south-side neighborhood, police made 32 marijuana arrests for every 1,000 residents in 2013. That is almost ten times the typical arrest rate in the city.

The consortium claims Fuller Park’s extreme arrest rate is the result of the city’s patchwork legal system, which lets Chicago police choose whether to issue a ticket for pot possession under ten grams or make an arrest.

As illustrated in the map below, this discretion leads to significant discrepancies in marijuana enforcement. Those neighborhoods with the highest arrest rates are shaded in red; those with the lowest in green.

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Arrest rates were calculated using data from the City of Chicago as reported by the consortium.

Despite the ticketing alternative, nine out of ten times Chicago police opt to make an arrest for pot possession.

All but one of the neighborhoods in the top 20 percent for marijuana arrests is majority black. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, marijuana use is not more common among African Americans. Blacks make up about 12 percent of the population, and 11 percent of illicit drug users.

Plotting a community’s arrest rate against the share of its population that is African American, it is easy to see the upward trend. High arrest rates are much more common is black neighborhoods.

“When you are talking about a rate of arrest that is 150 times higher in a Chicago neighborhood like East Garfield Park, as compared to Edison Park,” said Kathie Kane-Willis, the consortium’s executive director, “you have to conclude that the system is fundamentally flawed.”

To reverse these racial disparities in pot enforcement, the consortium advocates making marijuana the lowest law enforcement priority for Chicago police and ultimately legalizing marijuana so its sale is licensed, regulated and taxed.

Get the data and code used in this analysis.