Hundreds of thousands of people are still being arrested for marijuana possession in the United States. New data are a stark reminder of how prohibition—despite the momentum for legalization, and preidential candidates seeming to endorse it—continues to devastate communities.
The latest FBI Uniform Crime Reporting statistics were published September 23. The report collates over 14 million criminal charges from over 16,000 city, state, county and tribal police agencies, covering 94 percent of the US population. While there are major gaps and inconsistencies in the data, the report is still a significant window on our national reality.
It shows that in 2023, police made over 200,300 arrests for marijuana possession. Arrests for marijuana sales and manufacturing totaled over 16,800. The possession total is a moderate decrease from 216,000 the year prior.
Some demographic breakdowns are given. Black people, around 14 percent of the US population, continue to be targeted at grossly disproportionate rates—making up 41 percent of possession arrests. This disparity has substantially worsened over the past decade; in 2013, 31 percent of marijuana possession arrests were of Black people.
While 54 percent of possession arrests in 2023 were of white people, the FBI data include no Hispanic or Latino distinction, which is an important missing piece.
In terms of age, people aged 25-29 were arrested most, comprising 16 percent of possession arrests, while those over 65 were least likely to be arrested. Men were also arrested for marijuana possession at three times the rate of women.
Less populated, more rural states are major drivers of the national total.
Unsurprisingly, the bulk of possession arrests (86 percent) were in states where cannabis has not been legalized. Texas, with a population of 30 million, stands out with over 25,500 arrests; by comparison Florida, with a population of 22 million, saw 3,400 arrests. A total of over 11,200 arrests in Pennsylvania (population 13 million) is also notably high.
But less populated, more rural states are major drivers of the national total. These include Idaho (5,100 marijuana possession arrests), Nebraska (3,800) and Utah (7,200). There are very high numbers in the South, including Alabama (6,900 possession arrests), Georgia (9,600), Louisiana (10,300), North Carolina (10,100) and South Carolina (10,300).
But not all of the possession arrests are taking place in states where marijuana remains illegal. Adding up the numbers for the 24 states that have legalized, plus Washington, DC, brings a total of just under 28,000.
It seems incredible that police continue to make tens of thousands of arrests in places that have decided marijuana posession should not be criminalized. The FBI data don’t offer further detail, but cases would be likely to include possession over the legal maximum, possession as an underage person, possession on school grounds, possession with intent to sell and public use.
“There’s still a lot of lack of awareness and stigma [from cops]. People think there are other drugs mixed in cannabis even though we know that’s exceedingly rare.”
Police conduct is also a big factor, as Sarah Gersten, executive director of the Last Prisoner Project, explained.
“There’s still a lot of lack of awareness and stigma [from cops],” she told Filter. “People think there are other drugs mixed in cannabis even though we know that’s exceedingly rare.”
That stigma continue to have a racist impact; some California cities, for example, saw worsening marijuana arrest rates for Black residents post-legalization.
“Here in Connecticut,” Gersten continued, “we passed legalization in 2022, then Last Prisoner Project worked on a bill to ensure we had fully stopped criminalizing cannabis and arresting people for it. Even in 2024, we still had thousands of pending charges that luckily we were able to get the state’s attorney to drop.”
Criminal records have severe, sometimes lifelong, impacts on people’s ability to access employment, housing, education and much more. And marijuna prohibition remains a major contributor to the fact that 77 million people—about one in three adults in the US—have a criminal record, as Dustin Chicurel-Bayard, senior communications strategist for the Clean Slate Initiative, explained.
“In Louisiana, 38 percent of all adults have an arrest or conviction. It can have a devastating impact.”
Many of the states with the harshest marijuana enforcement also have the worst overall rates of arrest, incarceration and racial disparities. Louisiana is one notorious example.
“[Those states] are areas where we have found a larger percentage of people affected by having arrest or conviction records,” Chicurel-Bayard told Filter. “In Louisiana, 38 percent of all adults have an arrest or conviction. In North Carolina, it is one in every four people … It can have a devastating impact when we want to make sure people have fair access to employment, housing and education opportunities.”
For a number of reasons, the FBI report’s data should be taken with large grains of salt, and shouldn’t be read as conclusively illustrating the full extent of harms.
Gersten explained how criminal record-keeping—for marijuana and other drug categories—is not uniform or standardized around the country. Some law enforcement agencies do not report to the FBI. Even the FBI’s own data are seemingly self-contradictory: Marijuana Moment points out how the report gives four different figures for the total number of drug arrests nationwide. Another issue is that different states have different standards for how they count marijuana charges.
“In Connecticut, we don’t have a specific marijuana offense in the penal code,” Gersten noted. “There is a broad category: ‘controlled substance nonnarcotic hallucinogenic.’ Even post-legalization, there was no change to the criminal code to reflect that and make sure law enforcement aren’t arresting people for it. They could still put that offense on people’s record.”
“We do see a decline in states with legalization, but that number doesn’t get to zero. There’s a lot of followup work that needs to be done.”
The FBI’s confusing categorizations extend to other drug types. Police made more arrests for marijuana in 2023 than for possession of “opium or cocaine” (125,800) or “synthetic narcotics” (40,500). But arrests for possession of “dangerous nonnarcotic drugs” (317,500) were higher; it isn’t immediately clear exactly which drugs fall into that category. One note is that marijuana sales arrests were far lower than sales arrests for most other drug categories.
While marijuana possession arrests remain shockingly high, they do seem to have declined significantly, if inconsistently, over the past decade, as monthly FBI totals reflect. 2013 hit a peak of 84,000 arrests in the month of October alone. The last major peak was in March 2018 (over 51,000). The decline seems to be more consistent in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic, and in December 2023, the last month of FBI data, over 14,200 were reported.
It’s still far too many in a country with a growing consensus in favor of legalization.
“We know the majority of arrests happen at the state and local level,” Gersten said. “We do see a decline in states with legalization, but that number doesn’t get to zero. Whenever there is a legalization bill that passes, there’s a lot of followup work that needs to be done with law enforcement to ensure we’re no longer arresting people.”
Image via Vermont General Assembly
Hundreds of thousands of people are still being arrested for marijuana possession in the United States. New data are a … Read More