From there, the newspaper’s editors hit the points common to any argument for legalization. “We believe that the evidence is overwhelming that addiction and dependence are relatively minor problems, especially compared with alcohol and tobacco,” it argues, noting the scant evidence that moderate use is harmful to “otherwise healthy adults.” And while the Times is relatively silent on thornier issues with legalization—like the consequences of greater marijuana intoxication on public safety or the difficulty of crafting an effective regulatory regime—the broad point is sound. We can handle a world of legal marijuana—and the costs of not trying have proven too great.

An element that looms large in the Times analysis is the disparate impact of marijuana enforcement on blacks and Latinos. From 2001 to 2010, according to a 2013 report from the American Civil Liberties Union, blacks and whites had roughly equal rates of marijuana use, with small variations from year to year. Among young people ages 18 to 25, usage rates were higher for whites, and overall, more blacks than whites say they’ve never tried marijuana.

Nevertheless, blacks are 3.73 times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession, with an arrest rate of 716 per 100,000 for blacks to 192 per 100,000 for whites (compared to a national average of 256 per 100,000). What’s startling is that the total marijuana arrest rate has increased by nearly one-third since 2001, while at the same time, the rate for whites has remained constant, a sign that blacks account for the bulk of new arrests. And this dynamic is persistent across the country, from Washington D.C.—where the arrest rate for blacks is 8.05 times greater than for whites—to Alaska, where it’s “just” 1.6 times greater. Nationally, nearly one-half of our 1.7 million drug arrests are for marijuana possession.