14. Marijuana arrests in Colorado disproportionate for young and people of color

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/25/marijuana_arrests_in_colorado_disproportionate_for_young_and_people_of_color/

On October 25, Natasha Lennard writes to 'The Salon' on Marijuana arrests in Colorado and how they seem to show a racist trend. She opens the article mentioning the drug's legalization, which may occur in two weeks depending on public vote.  Lennard then analyzes the previous arrests regarding illegal Marijuana usage on the past 25 years and points out to the reader how the amount of black and Latino young people were much greater than the other races. She goes into more detail on the disproportion of arrests, citing the study based on FBI-UCR crime data results that confirmed 86% of the people arrested for that particular issue were 34 years or younger, and the arrested Latinos and blacks presented a bigger ratio than that of whites. The author also presents the reader another article which states that Marijuana usage is more common among whites. She closes her article by enforcing her point through the citation of Levine and his argument: "(...)arrests for drug possession remain potentially ruinous and consistently discriminatory,"  and making a case against those against the drug's legalization, as they stand up for the idea of "there's no need to legalize it once it's already a minor offense," by citing Loren Siegel who states 'drug crime' in one's curriculum creates many barriers and life-changing obstacles.

Lennard's intentions through the article are to open the eyes of the reader toward racism occurring in Colorado and to slightly persuade the reader toward the issue of Marijuana legalization, as one is able to see in the articles title, "Marijuana arrests in Colorado disproportionate for young and people of color." She achieves her goal by using several statistics and by citing reliable sources, such as experts on the subject and leaders of groups involved in the case.