Joplin NORML will celebrate its third anniversary with a concert aimed at raising awareness and funds for the local group. Admission to the event is $6.00 and you must be over 21 years of age to attend. Bands scheduled to perform are Jah Roots (Springfield, MO), McGill (Springfield, MO) and One Shade of Grey (Carthage, MO). A gift certificate donated by Punkteur Tattoo’s (1312 S Joplin Ave) and custom artwork donated by Camzilla Industries, both valued at $200 will be raffled off at the event.

This week the FBI released its annual report on Crime in the United States 2007. Once again, the number of people in the United States arrested for marijuana has gone up. 872,721 Americans were arrested for marijuana in 2007, and of those arrests, 89% or 775,138 were arrests for simple possession - not buying, selling, trafficking, or manufacture (growing). This is the largest total number of annual arrests for cannabis ever recorded by the FBI. Cannabis arrests now comprise nearly 47.5 percent of all drug arrests in the United States.

"This latest report flies in the face of the myth that our government doesn't target minor marijuana offenders," said Joplin NORML President Kelly Maddy, who noted that at current rates, a cannabis consumer is arrested every 37 seconds in America. "These arrests are a waste of precious law enforcement resources that could be better spent on more serious and violent crime."