Drug War Bust

Ed Carson from the January 1997 issue

Republicans have used recent reports of increased teen drug use to accuse President Clinton of being soft on drugs. But according to the latest FBI Uniform Crime Report, an estimated 588,963 marijuana arrests were made by state and local law enforcement in 1995--an all-time high. That's one person busted for pot every 54 seconds. About 86 percent of the arrests were for simple possession. All told, law enforcement made 1.5 million drug arrests in 1995, also a record, and up 41 percent from 1991.