Colorado Data Suggests Race Plays a Role in Which Teenagers Get Arrested for Pot

Guess who fares fine? White kids.

By Leah Sottile

Cannabis prohibition is supposed to be over in Oregon. But data from other states suggests the color of your skin changes the legality of marijuana.

Studies in Washington and Colorado, which both legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, still show wide disparities in pot arrests of juveniles in those states.

Cover Story: Devontre Thomas is 19. He faces a year in prison. For a gram of marijuana.

For example, this 2016 report issued by the Colorado Department of Public Safety shows wide disparities in rates that juveniles of different races were arrested for pot possession after the state legalized cannabis. (It's even worse than these numbers suggest, since minorities make up a very small percentage of Colorado's population.) White, Asian and Native American kids were arrested less frequently. But black and Latino kids were arrested increasingly often.

(WW Staff) (WW Staff)

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