Can anybody point me to great databases or empirical analyses of misdemeanor marijuana convictions (state or federal)?
The question in the title of this post started banging around my head this afternoon after I did two posts today over at my Sentencing Law & Policy blog: this one about a notable federal misdemeanor marijuana prosecution of a Native American teen in Oregon and this one about an article doing an empirical analysis of the “downstream consequences” of pretrial detention for misdemeanors.
I am always trying to take stock of the criminal justice “footprint” of marijuana prohibition, and it should be obviously that misdemeanor charges, convictions and punishments are surely a huge (and probably the largest) part of that footprint. Nevertheless, I have never seen (nor really every seriously looked for) any detailed databases or empirical analyses of misdemeanor marijuana cases in any particular jurisdiction. I would be very grateful to hear from any and everyone who know whether and where such resources might be found.