Marijuana Arrests Continue to Fall As Decriminalization and Legalization Spread

According to
FBI numbers released today, police made
1,501,043 drug arrests last year, down from
1,552,432 in 2012, a drop of about 3 percent. Marijuana
accounted for about 693,000 of those arrests (46
percent), down from about 750,000 (48
percent) in 2012. The 7.6 percent drop in pot busts entirely
accounts for the decline in total drug arrests, which otherwise
would have risen. As usual, the vast majority of marijuana
arrests—88 percent, or about 609,000—involved simple possession, as
opposed to manufacture or sale.

The peak
year for marijuana arrests was 2007, when there were about
873,000, three times as many as in 1991. The number fell to 848,000
in 2008, rebounded to 858,000 in 2009, and has been declining since
then. Contributing to that trend, Colorado and Washington last year
stopped arresting people for possessing less than an ounce of
marijuana, as required by legalization measures that voters
approved in 2012. Prior to that change, Colorado police were

arresting about 10,000 people for marijuana possession each
year. The annual number in
Washington was about 6,000. Marijuana possession arrests in
New York
City, which peaked at more than 50,000 in 2011, also fell last
year, from 39,218 to 28,644.

The downward national trend should continue. Washington, D.C.,
decriminalized
marijuana possession last spring, and a legalization measure
approved by voters in
Alaska last week will eliminate arrests for possessing up
to an ounce in public (possession of small amounts in the home was
already protected
under a 1975 Alaska Supreme Court decision).
Oregon, the other state where voters approved legalization last
week, had already decriminalized possession of less than an ounce
(although the ballot initiative will eliminate the fine).
Residents of those three jurisdictions also voted to abolish
penalties for home cultivation within specified limits. If
approved, the marijuana initiatives that are expected to be on the
ballot in 2016 could take another bite out of pot busts, although
California, Maine, and Massachusetts, three states where such
measures are likely, already have decriminalized possession of
small amounts.