Even as more states continue to legalize marijuana, new FBI data shows that at least 200,000 people were arrested over cannabis in 2023—and simple possession again made up the vast majority of those cases. Those figures are likely understated, however, given inconsistencies in the federal data and ongoing questions about the agency’s methodology.
At a time when the public and both major party presidential nominees find themselves aligned in their opposition to criminalizing people over low-level marijuana offenses, advocates say the federal data released on Monday further underscores the need to urgently change course.
The 2023 data, according to FBI, comes from more than 14 million criminal offenses reported to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, which is submitted by over 16,000 state, local and tribal agencies whose jurisdictions comprise more than 94 percent of the country’s population. That’s slightly more data coverage compared to the FBI’s crime report from the prior year.
Because not all agencies provide data for the complete reporting periods, FBI has explained that the bureau calculates estimated crime numbers, essentially extrapolating “by following a standard estimation procedure using the data provided.” In terms of total reported arrests for “drug/narcotic,” for example, FBI said there were
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