Arrest totals in Alaska appear to be going down. A study by the Alaska Justice Center shows that trend holds true with drug arrests specifically.
Between 2000 and 2012, the total number of arrests in Alaska declined nearly 15 percent.
In that time span, juvenile arrests decreased by more than half. Brad Myrstol is the director of the Alaska Justice Statistical Analysis Center. He says drug-related juvenile arrests went down around 25 percent, but the types of drugs involved appears to be changing.
“The proportion of juvenile drug arrests for marijuana have increased notably in recent years,” Myrstol said. “Meanwhile, the proportion of juvenile drug arrests for narcotics have dropped off quite precipitously.”
Though drug offense arrests for adults have decreased as well, Myrstol says the statistics paint a different picture for adults.
“In general, the trend for adults is that adult drug offense arrests for marijuana are on the decline, and adult drug offense arrests for narcotics have been stable,” Myrstol said.
Regardless of whether the arrests involve an adult or a juvenile, one fact remains the same — the vast majority of those arrests are for possession. And that is something Myrstol says is important to understand.
“There’s, I think, an inherent assumption oftentimes that what we’re talking about is the sale, manufacture and distribution of illicit drugs,” Myrstol said.
But that’s just not the case. Over the past decade, about 26 percent of drug-related crimes for adults and around 15 percent of juvenile drug arrests involved the sale, manufacture and distribution of drugs.
