|
Highly recommended:
U.S. Drug War Stats |
|
Charts (Incarceration, race, cannabis, mandatory minimums, crime, murder, etc.)
Annual Marijuana Arrests in the U.S.
(NORML.org)
100 arrests per hour in 2007!
|
U.S. statistics:
Deaths in 2001 |
| Tobacco |
400,000 |
| Alcohol |
110,000 |
| Rx drugs |
100,000 |
| Suicide |
30,000 |
| Murder |
15,000 |
Aspirin/
Painkillers |
7600 |
| Marijuana |
0 |
|
| Charts and Graphs About the Drug War |
| DrugLibrary.org |
| State By State Laws |
| Learn the law in your state (NORML.org) |
| U.S. Drug War Clock |
| Costs associated with the U.S. War on Drugs (continually updated) |
| |
| Cannabis prohibition cost American taxpayers $42 billion in 2007. |
U.K. drug statistics
Non-violent offenders
should never be incarcerated with violent offenders...
Stop Prison Rape
www.spr.org
|
Canadian Majority Would Legalize Marijuana
May 13, 2008
-
Angus Reid Global Monitor
Full Report (PDF)
"53% of Canadians support the legalization of marijuana"
Polling Data:
Do you support or oppose the legalization of each of the following drugs? ("Support" listed)
| Source: Angus Reid Strategies |
| Marijuana |
53% |
51% |
55% |
| Ecstasy |
9% |
9% |
8% |
| Powder cocaine |
9% |
8% |
8% |
| Heroin |
8% |
9% |
9% |
| Crack cocaine |
8% |
7% |
7% |
Methamphetamine
or "crystal meth" |
7% |
7% |
7% |
Source: Angus Reid Strategies.
Methodology: Online interviews with 1,004 Canadian adults, conducted on May 8 and May 9, 2008. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.
|
Canadians Support Marijuana Legalization
June 28, 2007 - Angus Reid Global Monitor Full Report (PDF)
"55% of Canadians support legalization of marijuana" |
| Support for Decriminalization (*survey terms are shown in parenthesis) |
|
2005: 59% Canada (57% U.S.)("possession should not always result in a criminal record")
2003: 69% ("fines rather than jail sentences for marijuana possession") SES Research
2003: 58% ("reduced criminal implications") Decima Research
2003: 83% ("want pot prohibition to be less stringent")
2003: 65% ("decriminalization")
2002: 50% ("decriminalization")
2000: 65% ("decriminalization")
1997: 51% ("should not be a criminal offence")
1987: 39% ("decriminalization") |
| Support for Legalization (*survey terms are shown in parenthesis) |
|
2008: 53% ("legalization") Angus Reid
2007: 51% ("legalization") Angus Reid
2007: 55% ("legalization") Angus Reid
2004: 53% ("regulating and taxing")
2000: 47% ("legalization") source
1975: 26% ("legalization") source |
| |
|
More information about Canadian opinion polls: |
2005 - Marijuana should not always result in a criminal record
59% of Canadian respondents -- and 57 % of American respondents -- think the conviction of possession of marijuana should not always result in a criminal record.
Source:
Ipsos-Reid |
2001 - Legalization
47% of Canadian teens approve of outright legalization of marijuana
source 1, source 2 |
2001 & 2000 - Decriminalization
70% of people approve of decriminalization
source 1 (70%, 2001) |
source 2 (65%, 2000) |
2000 & 1997 - Medical Purposes
92% of Canadians approve of marijuana for medical purposes
source 1 (92%, 2000)
| source 2: (84%, 2000) | source 3 (80%, 1997) |
Canadians See Drug Offences as Illness, Not Crime
Feb 1, 2007 - Angus Reid Global Monitor
"65% of Canadians support "treating the use of illegal drugs as an illness and focus on prevention and treatment for addicts."
|
| Poll Question: Do you think the best approach to drug abuse is... |
| * Treat the use of illegal drugs as an illness and focus on prevention and treatment for addicts. |
65% |
| * Treat the use of illegal drugs as a crime and get tough on enforcement of drug laws among addicts. |
35% |
|
| 1.5 million Canadians have criminal records for simple possession. [source] |
| Approximately 50,000 Canadians are arrested each year for marijuana related crimes.
(49,639 in 2001 - Statistics Canada)
[U.S. arrest stats] |
| 75% of drug-related criminal charges are related to marijuana |
| 65% of Canadians arrested for marijuana related crimes are for simple possession (under 30 grams of cannabis). |
| More than 30,000 Canadians are charged with simple possession annually - about 5% of these go to jail |
| Canadian Arrest Statistics: 1922 - present |
| • Costs Associated with the Prohibition of Cannabis |
[June 2004]
About $400 million a year is spent annually on arresting, prosecuting and jailing drug criminals in Canada, an investment that has resulted in more than 600,000 Canadians with a criminal record for marijuana possession.
According to the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, 2,000 Canadians go to jail every year for marijuana possession, at a cost to the taxpayer of $150 a day to house each of them. [source] |
|
[December 2001] The Canadian government spends more than $500 million annually enforcing drug laws.
(according to the most recent auditor-general's report)
Auditor General Sheila Fraser wrote : "The federal government could not provide complete information on resources spent to address illicit drugs." |
| Around $400 million is spent annually by the criminal justice system on cannabis-related offenses. [source] |
| Dr. Keith Martin (MP) believes decriminalization will save taxpayers $150 million a year. |
"There are already 600,000* [Canadian] cases on record. With 30,000 arrests each year, your estimated legal costs are, I believe, $500 million. If we follow the prohibitionist line of reasoning, there are 30,000 arrests a year, each imprisoned individual costs $50,000 a year, so a total cost of $1.5 billion a year. As the number of arrests increase, costs rise exponentially." [source]
*this 600,000 number was revised to 1.5 million in 2002 by the John Howard Society... |
"1.5 million Canadian citizens now have criminal records for possession of cannabis."
John Howard Society - Canadian Cannabis Policy - Factsheet 1 - 2002 |
| • Lost Opportunity for Tax Revenue |
| Estimates put the value of the marijuana industry to the B.C. economy at anywhere between $2 billion and $10 billion, making it one of B.C.'s top three industries. |
| Canadian officials estimate that $4 billion to $7 billion worth of Canadian marijuana is sold in the United States each year. [source] |
Read Article |
04/26/06
Addictions bleed nearly $40B a year from economy: study
Tobacco addiction costs are estimated at $17 billion, or 42.7 per cent of the total amount.
Alcohol dependency costs are pinned at $14.6 billion, or 36.6 per cent.
The costs from addictions to [all] illegal drugs are estimated at about $8.2 billion, or 20.7 per cent. |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Cannabis use by all Canadians |
|
2004: 12% of Canadians used cannabis more than once over the past year
2004: 14% of Canadians said they smoked pot some time over the past year
2004: 45.5% of Canadians said they had smoked pot some time in their lives
2002: 25% of adult Canadians have tried cannabis some time in life
2002: Approx. 7% of Canadians smoke marijuana recreationally (2.2 million)
1994: 7.4% of Canadians said they smoked pot some time over the past year
|
| Cannabis use by young Canadians |
|
2003:34% of teens reported having tried marijuana more than once
2003: Ontario Students: males=31%, females=28% tried marijuana more than once
1999: almost 30% of teens reported having tried marijuana more than once
1993: 13% of teens reported having tried marijuana more than once
*For more information about these statistics see below. |
|
| More information about use statistics: |
2004: "Drug Use in Toronto 2004" -
The Research Group on Drug Use
15% of Toronto adults reported past year cannabis
use.
23% of Toronto students reported past year cannabis
use. (22% in 2003)
Download "Press Release - Jan. 19/05 [PDF, 100k]
Download Findings by individual drugs: Cannabis [PDF, 48k]
Links to the FULL report or other individual sections [RGDU web site] |
| |
2004 (November) -
Canadian Addiction
Survey (CAS) (PDF document)
A national survey of Canadians’ use
of alcohol and other drugs.
Prevalence of Use and Related Harms
| Drug use among Canadians between the ages of 15 and 24 has doubled in the last 10 years: |
2004: 14% of Canadians said they smoked pot some time over the past year
1994: 7.4% of Canadians said they smoked pot some time over the past year |
Overall, 45.5% of Canadians said they had smoked pot some time in their lives - almost double the number of people who answered that question a decade ago.
(* this increase might also be partly the result of Canadians being more comfortable admitting to cannabis use.) |
|
| |
2004 (July) -
Statistics Canada - Use Survey [source]
* 3 million Canadians over age 15 - a little more than 12% of the population - admitted they'd used at least two cannabis substances in the previous 12 months |
| |
2003 (December) -
GPC Research - Use Survey [source]
* A survey of 12- to 19-year-olds conducted this fall found that 34% said they had tried marijuana on more than one occasion.
* Almost 85,000 Canadian teens smoke marijuana daily (There are about three million teens aged 12-19 in Canada.) (85,000 out of 3 million) |
| |
2003 (November) -
Ontario Student Drug Use Survey (OSDUS) [source]
"In males, it's about 31%. In females, it's 28% that indicated use at least once in their life," said Dr. Edward Adlaf, senior researcher at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. |
| |
2002 Special Senate Committee Report
Cannabis: Our Position for a Canadian Public Policy
"Approx. 25% of adult Canadians have tried cannabis some time in life" |
| |
2002: Approx. 7% of Canadians smoke marijuana recreationally (over 2 million people)
source 1: StatsCan
|
source 2: Parliamentary Website
(Population of Canada in 2002: 31 million
x 7% = 2.2 million marijuana smokers) |
| |
| According to a U.N. study of drug use, 147 million people consume marijuana worldwide. [source: Globe & Mail, 9/22/02] |
| • Cannabis |
- There has never been a documented death as the result of ingesting marijuana. It is physically impossible to overdose from marijuana.
[View chart showing how cannabis compares with other substances.] |
| • Tobacco |
| - Over 45,000 Canadians die each year from tobacco. [Source] |
| • Alcohol |
- It was estimated that 6,507 Canadians died in 1995 due to alcohol consumption.
"The Real Facts On Alcohol Use, Injuries And Deaths"
- MADD Canada |
|
- Alcohol is linked to
more than 60 different medical conditions |
| - Approximately 18,000 Canadian deaths are caused each year by alcohol. [Source] |
| • All illicit drugs *combined* |
The total number of deaths attributed to *all* illicit drugs in Canada in 1995 is
estimated at 804. |
* Also view the "Prohibitionist Claims" section of this site.
[Canadian cigarette package warning label ]
Canadian Stats | Prohibitionist Claims | Global Scorecard | Video | Flyers | Links
 back to top
|
|
Recommended
Reading! |
| Politicians blowing smoke on grow-ops: lawyers |
|
Excerpts:
"I have never seen violence in my grow-op cases, except for the violence
meted out by police," said lawyer Stanley Tessmer of Kelowna, B.C., who
successfully represented a B.C. couple in the 2003 appeal.
"I just don't know where police get their statistics. Police press releases
wouldn't stand up to 10 minutes of fact checking." |
The Mythology of
"BC Bud"
|
Senate Special Committee's Report on Cannabis: 2002
MORE