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The District of Columbia leads the United States the rate at which people are arrested for marijuana possession, according to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2010, police in D.C. made 836 arrests per 100,000 residents during 2010. Nationally, 256 people out of every 100,000 were arrested for possession.

More jarringly, the ACLU report also breaks down the unsurprising, but still staggering ratio of arrests of black individuals to white individuals. Nationally, the white arrest rate was 192 per 100,000, while the black arrest rate was 716 per 100,000, or about 3.73 as great.

There is almost no discernable racial difference, though, in the rate at which people use marijuana. In 2010, the ACLU found, 14 percent of blacks and 12 percent of whites reported using the substance.

But in D.C., that split is far more severe. While the city’s white arrest rate for simple marijuana possession was 185 per 100,000 in 2010, it was 1,489 per 100,000—or 8.05 times as frequently—for D.C.’s black residents. Only in Iowa was that ratio found to be more severe.

Paul Zukerberg, an attorney who specializes in marijuana cases, finds the ACLU’s findings to be “terrible” and “shocking.” Zukerberg was a candidate in the April 23 special election to fill a seat on the D.C. Council.

“Not only do we lead the nation in marijuana arrests per capita, but 90.9 percent of people arrested in the District for marijuana possession are black,” Zukerberg tells DCist. “We are seeking a profound racial bias in the application of marijuana laws in the District, which is derailing the lives and careers of so many young people of color.”

Shortly before the election, in which he finished fifth, Zukerberg obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request statistics from the Metropolitan Police Department about recent marijuana arrests. Zukerberg found that D.C. police made 4,445 marijuana-related arrests in 2009, 5,280 in 2010, and 5,759 in 2011. As D.C. has become a safer city with fewer violent crimes, Zukerberg argued, police have been stepping up their enforcement of small-time pot use to the great detriment of the city’s youth.

“The D.C. Council must act now to join the 17 other states which have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana,” Zukerberg says now. “This must be fixed and soon.”

Councilmembers Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) and Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who is also running in the 2014 mayoral election, announced plans to introduce a bill that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.