Florida investigation: Black people disproportionately arrested for marijuana

Black people in Pinellas and Hillsborough are at least six times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession as white people.

It's not because of who smokes pot and who doesn't.

Federal surveys show that 10 to 12 percent of both races use marijuana at least once a month.

What does differ is how pot marketplaces unfold in various neighborhoods and how police agencies respond.

As a result, a mood-altering substance that many Floridians think should be legal generates criminals in one sector of the community while other people largely skate free.

"The harm is far greater than the harm marijuana ever did'' because citizens view the justice system as unfair, said Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, who last month asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate similar imbalances in Fort Lauderdale.

"You cannot let one group of people play then punish the other people.''

Racial disparities in pot possession arrests is not a new topic. But the disparities are particularly pronounced in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, a Tampa Bay Times analysis found.

Nationwide, black people were 3.7 times as likely to be arrested from 2001 to 2010, according to an American Civil Liberties Union report based on FBI crime statistics and census data.

The 2013 disparity in Pinellas and Hillsborough was nearly double that, the Times analysis found.

One reason is open air drug dealing, said St. Petersburg police Chief Tony Holloway.

In poor, black neighborhoods, cars, bicycles or pedestrians approach houses or street corners, sellers hand out the goods and frustrated citizens complain. Harder drugs like cocaine are also being sold and violence can erupt.

Police respond by putting extra resources into those neighborhoods.

"People want police action because you don't want to have to walk out of your house and walk through a bunch of drug dealers. That's why we get arrested more than whites, because we do it out in the open,'' said Holloway, who is black.