[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"news-article-ten-states-accounted-for-more-than-half-of-u-s-marijuana-arrests-in-2025-ff17c0c1":3},{"data":4},{"_id":5,"slug":6,"articleType":7,"body":8,"createdAt":19,"dek":20,"entities":21,"headline":29,"imageAlt":30,"imageUrl":31,"keyFacts":32,"language":49,"publishedAt":50,"seo":51,"sources":54,"summary":59,"updatedAt":60},"6a96cd085457399f4e5dceca","ten-states-accounted-for-more-than-half-of-u-s-marijuana-arrests-in-2025-ff17c0c1","enforcement",[9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18],"A recently released FBI report shows that more than 200,000 people were arrested for marijuana-related offenses in the U.S. last year, and more than half of those cannabis busts were made by police in just ten states, according to a new analysis from NORML. Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Georgia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Indiana, Louisiana, and Alabama police carried out more than 131,000 marijuana arrests in 2025—about 60 percent of the nationwide total.","Texas alone saw more than 29,000 cannabis arrests last year, accounting for about 14 percent of the nation's marijuana busts, with 98 percent of those being for possession alone. Police in North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin each reported more than 12,000 marijuana arrests last year, all with 90 percent or more for possession only.","NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said the threat of arrest for cannabis possession now largely comes down to geography. In nearly half the states, low-level marijuana arrests have fallen nearly to zero, while elsewhere police continue to disrupt hundreds of thousands of lives and waste tax dollars and prosecutorial resources on activities most Americans no longer believe ought to be a crime.","Louisiana had the highest percentage of total drug arrests accounted for by cannabis possession, at 62 percent. That state's governor recently signed legislation that threatens up to one year in jail for smoking marijuana within 2,000 feet of a school property, including a college campus.","NORML's analysis notes that marijuana arrests have generally decreased significantly in states that have legalized cannabis, though some jurisdictions that have enacted reform continue to see significant numbers of marijuana busts. Illinois police, for example, reported 5,731 cannabis possession arrests last year, and Washington, D.C. police carried out 1,336 such busts.","The overall FBI report likely understates the true number of people busted for marijuana, given inconsistencies in the federal data and questions about the agency's changing methodology, as well as the fact that about 13 percent of state and local law enforcement agencies did not contribute information for 2025. The full 2025 data set is based on more than 13 million criminal offenses reported to the Uniform Crime Reporting Program, covering 96.2 percent of the U.S. population.","The latest data shows cannabis-related offenses increased year over year, jumping to 200,960 marijuana possession busts in 2025 from 187,792 the prior year, and to 17,192 sales or manufacturing arrests from 16,244 in 2024. All told, marijuana busts accounted for a quarter of all drug arrests in 2025—more than for any other specifically listed substance—with 92 percent of cannabis incidents stemming from possession alone.","Despite the uptick from 2024 to 2025, advocates note that busts have been trending overall downward in recent years, which they attribute largely to the success of the expanding state-level legalization movement. Because not all agencies provide complete data, the FBI calculates estimated crime numbers by extrapolating using a standard estimation procedure.","Frustrations over the FBI's inconsistent data reporting on cannabis and other drug arrest trends have persisted. Various sections of the report provide different numbers for seemingly similar categories of offenses, with one table showing 1,492,005 drug\u002Fnarcotic offenses in 2025, another using 1,656,774 under the same heading, and a third putting the total at 1,958,377.","The FBI data also attempts to show trends over time, indicating 1,157,129 drug offenses charged in 2016 and 645,512 in 2025—a reduction of about 44 percent—though it is not clear how much of the change is due to shifting methodology versus actual changes in enforcement practices and state drug laws. In terms of controlled substances seized in 2024, the agency reported 408,688 marijuana seizures and 5,378 hashish seizures out of 1,122,990 total drug seizures, representing about 37 percent of enforcement actions.","2026-09-01T13:03:04.323Z","A new FBI report shows over 200,000 marijuana-related arrests nationwide last year, with Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Georgia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Indiana, Louisiana, and Alabama responsible for roughly 60 percent of the total.",{"brands":22,"products":23,"markets":24,"organizations":26},[],[],[25],"US",[27,28],"FBI","NORML","Ten States Accounted for More Than Half of U.S. Marijuana Arrests in 2025","Map of the United States highlighting the ten states responsible for more than half of all marijuana arrests in 2025, based on FBI data analyzed by NORML.","",[33,37,40,43,46],{"claim":34,"sourceUrl":35,"_id":36},"More than 200,000 people were arrested for marijuana-related offenses in the U.S. in 2025, and police in ten states—Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Georgia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Indiana, Louisiana, and Alabama—carried out more than 131,000 of those arrests, about 60 percent of the nationwide total.","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.marijuanamoment.net\u002Fthese-ten-states-were-responsible-for-more-than-half-the-marijuana-arrests-in-the-u-s-last-year\u002F","6a96cd08723e26a876d52b5d",{"claim":38,"sourceUrl":35,"_id":39},"Texas alone saw more than 29,000 cannabis arrests in 2025, accounting for about 14 percent of the nation's marijuana busts, with 98 percent of those being for possession alone.","6a96cd08723e26a876d52b5e",{"claim":41,"sourceUrl":35,"_id":42},"Louisiana had the highest percentage of total drug arrests accounted for by cannabis possession, at 62 percent.","6a96cd08723e26a876d52b5f",{"claim":44,"sourceUrl":35,"_id":45},"Cannabis-related offenses increased year over year, jumping to 200,960 marijuana possession busts in 2025 from 187,792 in 2024, and to 17,192 sales or manufacturing arrests from 16,244 in 2024.","6a96cd08723e26a876d52b60",{"claim":47,"sourceUrl":35,"_id":48},"Marijuana busts accounted for a quarter of all drug arrests in 2025, with 92 percent of cannabis incidents stemming from possession alone.","6a96cd08723e26a876d52b61","en","2026-09-01T13:03:06.300Z",{"title":52,"description":53},"Ten States Drove Over Half of U.S. Marijuana Arrests in 2025","FBI data shows more than 200,000 marijuana arrests in 2025, with ten states accounting for about 60 percent of the total, according to a NORML analysis.",[55],{"name":56,"url":35,"trustTier":57,"_id":58},"Marijuana Moment","trade","6a96cd08723e26a876d52b5c","More than 200,000 people were arrested for marijuana-related offenses in the U.S. in 2025, and police in just ten states carried out over 131,000 of those busts—about 60 percent of the nationwide total—according to a NORML analysis of newly released FBI data. Texas alone accounted for about 14 percent of all U.S. marijuana arrests, with 98 percent of those being for possession only.","2026-09-01T13:03:06.305Z"]