The most extensive study yet undertaken on U.S. marijuana arrests and penalties, released today, finds no relationship between marijuana arrest and use rates. The report further finds that current penalty structures act as a price support mechanism that boosts the illegal market.

Assembled by Jon Gettman, adjunct assistant professor in criminal justice at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va., the new report says:

• Marijuana arrests have almost doubled since 1991 -- but levels of marijuana use have remained fundamentally unchanged

• Penalties that increase for larger amounts of marijuana encourage consumers to make multiple small purchases, acting as a de facto price support for the illicit market

• Florida has the nation's harshest marijuana penalties, while the District of Columbia has the highest arrest rate for marijuana offenses

• Although African Americans use marijuana at a rate only about 25 percent higher than whites, blacks are almost three times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession as whites

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