Nearly 188,000 people were arrested in the US last year for possession of marijuana, according to the FBI’s latest annual crime report, and another 16,000 for selling or growing cannabis. However, these figures are underestimated given the inconsistencies in federal data and questions about the agency’s methodology.
The entire 2024 data set is based on more than 14 million crimes reported to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, which is used to document and analyze national crime trends. The report covers 95.6 percent of the U.S. population, the FBI said.
This latest data shows that cannabis-related crimes decreased slightly compared to 2023, from 200,306 possession arrests to 187,792 in 2024 and from 16,844 sales or manufacturing arrests to 16,244.
Advocates see the reduction as a reflection of the success of the legalization movement spreading at the state level, but also point out that marijuana is still the most commonly arrested illegal substance in Americans’ “war on drugs.”
“While the total number of marijuana-related arrests has dropped nationwide in recent years, it’s clear that marijuana-related charges are still a major driver of drug war enforcement in the United States,” NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano told Marijuana Moment.
In the new report, 27 percent of all drug possession arrests were for marijuana, more than for any other substance specifically listed.
Because not all agencies provide complete data for reporting periods, the FBI explained that the bureau calculates estimated crime numbers by essentially extrapolating “using the data provided following a standard estimation procedure.” In terms of total arrests reported for the category called “drug/narcotics,” for example, the FBI said there were 831,446 arrests.
At the same time, frustrations over the inconsistency of the FBI the data Reports of cannabis and other drug arrest trends have been maintained. Different sections of the report report different numbers for seemingly similar categories of crime.
An FBI chart says there were 1,413,223 “drug/narcotics crimes” in 2024. Another uses the figure of 1,577,175 in the same heading. A third total is 1,870,804.
Another section says there were 822,488 arrests for drug abuse violations in 2024, about 12 percent of the estimated 7.5 million arrests nationwide.
The FBI data also shows trends over time, indicating that 1,055,013 drug-related charges were filed in 2015 and 600,400 drug-related charges were filed in 2024, a decrease of about 43 percent, although it is unclear how much of the change is due to changes in the agency’s arrest practices and methods. State drug laws over the past decade.
In terms of controlled substance seizures in 2024, the agency said 386,540 cases of marijuana were seized out of a total of 1,072,704 drug seizures, about 36 percent of enforcement actions.
Lawmakers, researchers, and the media rely on FBI arrest data to understand and contextualize law enforcement trends. Not only do inconsistencies affect the public’s understanding of crime and law enforcement, but also how policies are developed and implemented.
The bureau was tipped off to the FBI’s alleged marijuana bug in May 2022, when Eric Sterling, a longtime drug reformer and former congressional staffer, said he discovered the presence of a Maryland police department. reporting cannabis possession citations issued under the state’s decriminalization law at the time as arrests As part of a data sharing partnership with the FBI.
Because other state and local law enforcement agencies don’t seem to report cannabis citations as arrests, Sterling reasoned, the inconsistent practice can significantly skew the FBI’s annual reports, making it harder to draw reasonable policy conclusions from the data.
In 2023—14 months after Sterling sent the query—the office finally responded. However, instead of addressing the apparent issue, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General’s Investigations Division said it had determined that “the issues you raised are more appropriate for consideration by another DOJ office.” He referred the inquiry to the FBI’s investigative division.
The FBI’s report on cannabis enforcement is also at risk because local and state police are not required to share data to inform the agency’s annual report, which is It provides a comprehensive view of law enforcement activities. The agency itself says that some data may not be comparable to previous years, due to varying levels of participation over time.
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Meanwhile, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said in a recent filing The process of reorganizing marijuana is at a standstill in the phase it has been in for monthsdespite the agency head’s prior commitment to senators that he would prioritize the issue if confirmed for the role.
President Donald Trump said in August that he planned to make a decision on his proposal to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) within weeks.
The overhaul would not legalize marijuana, however, so it remains to be seen how the reform might affect arrest rates reported in future FBI annual reports.