Sheriff Cannon Takes Issue with ACLU Marijuana Arrest Conclusions

Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon called a press conference Tuesday to discuss his take on a recent American Civil Liberties Union study on racial disparities in marijuana arrests.

Cannon said he took issue with the ACLU's conclusions based on the arrest data it studied, and said any racial disparities that emerged are due to the demographics of areas with heavy drug activity.

Cannon's press conference came in response to criticism the ACLU findings generated at the Charleston chapter of the NAACP, which called the finding that black males are 3.2 times more likely than whites to be charged for pot the epitome of racial profiling, according to Live5News.

"There is a disproportionate number of white kids charged with underage drinking, there's a disproportionate number of young black males charged with murder," Cannon said. "That's the reality of what we see out here, because that's an unfortunate element of the kinds of things we're called on. We don't fabricate those kinds of things."

Cannon said he thought the ACLU's summary conclusions about marijuana arrests was a ploy to try to build support for legalizing marijuana through race. He said he is opposed to legalizing pot, and called legalization a simplistic solution to drug problems that wouldn't really solve any problems.