Politics
New Marijuana Report Shows Arrests Are Plummeting As Legalization Spreads, But Criminalized States Still Send Thousands To Jail Each Year
As more states pass laws legalizing marijuana, arrests for cannabis are dropping considerably, a new report from an advocacy organization shows, not surprisingly. But it also makes the case that there is still work to be done as tens of thousands of people continue to be put in handcuffs every year in the U.S. over something that is now legal in nearly half the states.
Using data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the new Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) analysis tracks cannabis enforcement trends in states that have enacted reform and those that have not—showing a “wide gap between legalization and prohibition states,” according to the group’s press release.
“With cannabis legal and regulated, we anticipated that arrest rates for possession, manufacturing, and sales would plummet as demand shifted to the legal, regulated market,” the report says. “The data backs that up.”
The group released the report on Monday, known as the unofficial cannabis holiday 4/20.
It shows that there have been more than 21 million cannabis arrests in the U.S. since 1995, but that the trend is very much on the decline as more legalization laws come online.
“Annual cannabis arrests in the United States (including the District of Columbia and U.S. territories) have dropped from a peak of over 870,000 in 2007 to 211,104 in 2025,” MPP said. “Cannabis arrests dropped in every state after legalization. On average, legalization states’ cannabis arrest rates have dropped 85.53%, with possession arrests dropping by an average of 84.61% and sales arrests decreasing by an average of 80.39%.”
The 24 states with marijuana legalization laws on the books “made a total of 222,261 fewer cannabis arrests in 2025 than they did the year prior to their legalization of cannabis,” the report found.
In contrast, states that maintain prohibition made “more than eight times as many cannabis arrests than legalization states in 2025, although they have a smaller total population.”
Last year alone, police in legalization states made 22,357 cannabis arrests, compared to 186,581 marijuana arrests in prohibition states.
Adam Smith, MPP’s executive director, said in a press release that “cannabis legalization across 24 states has driven a historic decline in cannabis arrests nationwide, from a high of more than 900,000 to just over 200,000 annually.”
“That is still an alarmingly high number, with each of those arrests representing an actual person whose current reality and future prospects may well be derailed by a criminal record,” he said. “Across half of our country, hundreds of thousands of Americans are still being funneled into the criminal justice system every year for a victimless ‘crime’ that is very likely legal in the next state over.”
Prior to publishing the report, MPP put out a call for supporters to share their stories about being arrested for marijuana—and the resulting document includes several profiles of people who have had their lives upended due to cannabis-related law enforcement encounters.
One such story reads:
“I was arrested and locked in a cage on my 19th birthday for $20 worth of cannabis. I was jailed with other inmates charged with aggravated assault and armed robbery. I spent 23 days incarcerated for a victimless crime, $1,000 in court fines and fees, $2,200 in attorney costs, $600 in court-ordered probationary classes, and drug screenings. It almost derailed my college career. The trauma I experienced haunts me to this day.”
Another says:
“I am a disabled mother and grandmother with progressive genetic neuropathy who was able to stop using opiates thanks to cannabis. I was stopped for a rolling stop. The officer said he smelled marijuana and threatened to call the K9. I gave them the small bud (one gram) and pipe I had. Because I refused to plea or inform on others, I was thrown in jail in an overcrowded condemned jail to sleep on the floor for 46 days with no working toilet. My charges were eventually dropped, but I still have PTSD from my time in jail. I am unable to get my driver’s license due to all the fines and fees imposed on me. I live in constant fear that the police are going to break down my door and arrest me because of my choice of medicine.”
MPP notes that while legalization has driven a large-scale reduction in the number of arrests, “22,357 total cannabis arrests in a single year is still an alarmingly large number.”
“Arrests can be traumatic and incarceration is even more so. A day of missed work due to an arrest can result in job loss, which can result in lost housing and homelessness,” the report says. “Americans have even died while incarcerated for cannabis possession. Longer term, criminal records create barriers to housing, employment, and professional and occupational licensing.”
Even in states that have legalized cannabis, MPP notes, some still prohibit home cultivation or administer harsh criminal penalties for consuming marijuana in public or for possession by people under the age of 21.
“While we are not aware of any state that limits how much beer or wine an adult can possess, every legalization state caps the amount of cannabis adults can possess. Some limits are as low as one ounce,” it notes. “Although legalization states have dramatically reduced their number of arrests for marijuana, many still have significant work to do to stop ruining lives over personal use, possession, and cultivation of cannabis.”
Data released by FBI late last year show that of all drug possession arrests in the country, 27 percent were for marijuana—more than for any other specifically listed substance.
An separate analysis of the data by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) concluded that marijuana arrests are driving the overall war on drugs in states where cannabis remains illegal.
The organization focused on 14 states in particular. In five of those states (Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska and Wisconsin), marijuana accounted for more than 50 percent of total drug-related arrests last year.
For the other nine states (Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming), cannabis constituted a plurality of more than 40 percent of drug-related arrests.
Notably, the FBI data, which are compiled from submissions to the agency by local and state law enforcement, show that more than 97 percent of cannabis arrests in Alabama, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming were over possession, rather than trafficking or sales.
NORML, meanwhile, recently launched a survey asking cannabis consumers about the freedoms (or lack thereof) that they experience where they live.
The survey is “designed to capture real-time sentiment from cannabis consumers across the United States and beyond, offering a snapshot of how individuals experience cannabis policy in their daily lives,” the group said.
