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More than 200,000 people were arrested for marijuana possession in the U.S. last year, according to the FBI—and another 17,000 were arrested for allegedly selling or growing it. Marijuana accounted for about one in every four drug arrests in 2025, making it the most commonly cited individual drug offense in the FBI’s data. And while cannabis arrests have generally fallen over the past decade as more states have legalized, they actually increased from 2024 to 2025.
Here’s where things get complicated: the FBI’s marijuana numbers aren’t completely reliable. About 13% of state and local law enforcement agencies didn’t report data for 2025, the FBI uses estimates to fill some gaps, and different sections of its own report give conflicting numbers for drug offenses and arrests. The agency has also changed its reporting methods over the years, making comparisons harder. So we know hundreds of thousands of people are still getting arrested over cannabis—but we don’t have a perfectly reliable count of how many. For all the progress made toward legalization, marijuana possession is still getting people arrested at a pretty staggering rate.
This is a summary.
Please read the original article: More Than 200,000 People Were Arrested For Marijuana Possession In The U.S. Last Year, FBI Data Shows
Original article written by Tom Angell. Published on August 25, 2026 by Marijuana Moment.
