Due to archaic U S drug laws hundreds and thousands of people are sent away from the country each year due to committing minor drug offenses, even if they had served out the term long ago. This has come to light due to a report which was released some days ago by an international advocacy group.

The report has recorded struggles of hundreds of immigrants and families that were involved in the arrests, non-citizens were majorly arrested for minor drug offenses and then placed into deportation procedures.

An old lady with age of 67 was facing deportation for a conviction in the year 1995 for selling $5 worth of a drug, the report blamed her for dependence on the substance.

“I live in a drug-infested area,” the old lady said about her neighborhood, in the report. She said the death of her mother following a train accident had devastated her, and this sparked off a series of drug use and criminal convictions. In 1995, the lady said that an undercover cop gave her $5 and asked her to buy a small amount of drugs for him. She later pleaded guilty to attempted sale of a narcotic substance.

“Simple possession of cocaine or marijuana were among the most frequent charges in deportation cases against non-citizens whose drug offense was their most serious crime”, according to the report. From the years 2007 to 2012, more than 41,000 non-citizens were deported for cocaine possession, and more than 34,000 were deported for marijuana possession.