# Caught with marijuana
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 20, 2011, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352 "2011-03-20T12:40:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2011, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352/1 "2011-03-20T12:40:20Z")
Since the previous thread on the subject is closed and I have, I think, something to add, I have started this one. See [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/opinion/19blow.html?\_r=1&scp=1&sq=marijuana%20black%20male&st=cse](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/opinion/19blow.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=marijuana%20black%20male&st=cse)
Bottom line: if you are young, black, and living in New York, you will not be let off with a slap on the wrist.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2011, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352/2 "2011-03-20T13:07:30Z")
Could we have some context please? What “previous thread” are you talking about?
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### Author:  [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2011, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352/3 "2011-03-20T15:08:14Z")
I think he means this one.
> **[Just how seriously illegal is getting caught smoking pot at this point?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=200449)**
>
> I know that some people are in jail for this and that penalities vary state to state, but what typically happens to the man or woman with no criminal history who is stopped by the police for a traffic citation and the officer notices a dime bag on...
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### Author:  [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352/4 "2011-03-20T15:39:57Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#):
>
> Since the previous thread on the subject is closed and I have, I think, something to add, I have started this one. See [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/opinion/19blow.html?\_r=1&scp=1&sq=marijuana%20black%20male&st=cse](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/opinion/19blow.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=marijuana%20black%20male&st=cse)
>
> Bottom line: if you are young, black, and living in New York, you will not be let off with a slap on the wrist.
Is there a question? Perhaps this is better suited to Great Debates.
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### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352/5 "2011-03-20T17:42:15Z")
NM
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352/6 "2011-03-20T17:58:17Z")
Since there appears to be _no_ General Question, let’s try IMHO.
**samclem** , Moderator
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### Author:  [@Nadir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nadir)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352/7 "2011-03-20T18:06:25Z")
Where I grew up in the era of thirty some years ago, it was not uncommon for cops to confiscate your weed and let you go with a warning.
Made you wonder. 😕
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2011, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352/8 "2011-03-20T18:11:42Z")
You have to be a fucking idiot to get caught with marijuana nowadays. As long as you smoke it inside your own home, and leave it inside your home, safely stashed in a discrete place, you’re very, very unlikely to be busted for weed unless you are also doing something in that home that is bothering people like loud crowds of drunk people on the porch. And, if you have to go walking or driving around in public with the marijuana on your person, you’re an idiot to get into the position where you might be searched.
I spent a lot of time among serious weed smokers, during high school, college and shortly after. A lot of people were complete reckless morons about handling their weed and pipes. They’d leave bowls sitting right on their passenger’s side seat, leave buds of freshly picked weed on their dashboards on a summer day to dry it out, walk around in public smoking joints, etc. These are the people who wound up getting busted.
The smart people, who kept their weed in a little jar inside a drawer in their dresser, or inside a sealed airtight case inside a purse, or whatever - these people don’t get busted.
I think the stuff should be completely legal. But, that said, that’s no excuse to be cavalier and reckless about the laws that do exist.
Anyone getting stopped, in public, and searched, whether they have marijuana on them or not, is doing something they shouldn’t be doing.
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### Author:  [@TravisFromOR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TravisFromOR)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352/9 "2011-03-20T19:08:53Z")
> [@Nadir](#):
>
> Where I grew up in the era of thirty some years ago, it was not uncommon for cops to confiscate your weed and let you go with a warning.
>
> Made you wonder. 😕
Department protocol is to dispose of confiscated contraband by fire.
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### Author:  [@Nadir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nadir)
#### Post date: [March 20, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352/10 "2011-03-20T19:27:56Z")
> [@TravisFromOR](#):
>
> Department protocol is to dispose of confiscated contraband by fire.
So in the case of a small amount from what constitutes a traffic stop confiscation where it was transported from the scene of the crime by an officer, would they not also be required to bag it, tag it, enter it into an inventory, submit for verification and storage and write that all up in a report?
Unless of course the fire to which you refer is started by a Bic lighter at the end of a cigarette containing said contraband, slowly smoldered away one puff at a time. 😃
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2011, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352/11 "2011-03-24T00:41:09Z")
I don’t doubt that African Americans who use marijuana, or commit other minor offenses, are more harshly dealt with than others. But it’s also true that New York has long been known for particularly tough drug laws–and enforcement, regardless of race.
This has tended to drive up the price of pot and also led to the infamous adage that compares New York joints to toothpicks. You can hear Jim Morrison intoning this on one of the bands’ live cuts, and apparently the adage still holds.
Me? I’ve never even been to New York.
Except once, in 1975, for about 20 minutes.\*
\*Well, OK, more like an hour. I was on a charter flight to Europe and we stopped at JFK.
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### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352/12 "2011-03-24T00:50:40Z")
As I’ve said elsewhere the article doesn’t say what it means by “arrest.” So until you can find out the exact stats it’s unfair to make a comparison.
If a person is arrested for stealing and the cops search his home and find pot that goes on the arrest as well. But this isn’t the same thing as being arrested for marijuana possession.
BUT are the stats in that article seperating the two?
This is why when you read things like that article, you have to make sure they are only comparing LIKE TO LIKE
For instance, you’re more likely to be arrested if you live in an area of high crime even if you are innocent. Why? Just because there’s more cops patrolling and more chances for you to accidently get involved whether you like it or not.
I’m not saying there isn’t racial elements involved but until you produce numbers that say
White Male age XXX to Minority Male age XXX and make sure the past criminal backgrounds are also equal the data means nothing
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2011, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352/13 "2011-03-24T00:56:43Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#):
>
> Anyone getting stopped, in public, and searched, whether they have marijuana on them or not, is doing something they shouldn’t be doing.
Since when? The police have a well known habit of doing that and worse to black people just for being black. To quote from the article:
> [@](#):
>
> Most of those stopped (55 percent) were black (a large portion were also Hispanic), most were young and almost all were male. For reference, according to the Census Bureau, there were about only 300,000 black men between the ages of 13 and 34 living in the city that year. A mere 6 percent of the stops resulted in arrests.
That sounds like harassment, not law enforcement.
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### Author:  [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2011, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caught-with-marijuana/575352/14 "2011-03-24T00:58:32Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#):
>
> Anyone getting stopped, in public, and searched, whether they have marijuana on them or not, is doing something they shouldn’t be doing.
I agree with most of your post. However, the part I quoted is false. Police will routinely stop and frisk a person when they have “reasonable suspicion” that the person was involved in a crime. This does not entail, however, that the person was actually doing anything wrong.
ETA: @ **Der Trihs** : The funny thing is that **Argent Towers** is wrong, even if we assume that cops are never racist. They may _reasonably_ suspect someone has done something wrong, even if the person hasn’t.