Is Race a Factor in Marijuana-Related Arrests in Prince George's County?

If you are black in Prince George's County, you are more than twice as likely to get arrested for marijuana posession than a white person.

The playing field is a bit more level in Prince George's than the state in general, however, and much better than in certain parts of the state, according to a report released by the ACLU that compares rates of marijuana possession arrests for black and white people in the United States.

“Despite the fact that marijuana is used at comparable rates by whites and Blacks, state and local governments have aggressively enforced marijuana laws selectively against Black people and communities,” the report reads. 

The War on Marijuana, in Black and White, is attached to this article as a PDF. 

Maryland has the fourth highest number of arrests for possession in the country regardless of race—about 409 out of 100,000 people in the state have been arrested for having marijuana. The national average is about 256 per 100,000. 

In Prince George's County, black people are nearly two and a half times more likely to be arrested than white people, according to the report. Another way of looking at it: 358 black people per 100,000 residents are arrested for possession.

"Prince George's County's population of 881,138 is approximately 65 percent African American," Julie Parker, spokesperson for the police department, wrote in an email to Patch.

"Our marijuana possession and distribution arrests, then, are more consistent with our community demographics than the vast majority of those jurisdictions included in the ACLU report," Parker added. "Our agency's expectations of our police officers are founded in rigorous training and best practices that insist on an unyielding commitment to constitutional policing."

Prince George's County does come closer to an equal arrest rate than most counties in the state. In Maryland, on average, a black person is closer to three times more likely to be arrested for possession.

Baltimore City had the highest discrepancy in arrest rates in Maryland—black people are five times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people.

The study did not include arrest rates of people who were described as any race other than either "black" or "white."