One Marijuana Arrest Every 45 Seconds In 2014 — New Federal Bureau of Investigation Statistics

The increase in arrests for marijuana possession previous year came as the drug was legalized in both Colorado and Washington.

Just last week, Massachusetts’ highest court ruled that police cannot legally stop drivers just on suspicion that they could be in possession of marijuana, reported the Boston Globe. “While law enforcement was busy making nearly three quarters of a million marijuana arrests, more than 35% of murders went unsolved, the clearance rate for rape was less than 40%, and for robbery and property crimes, it was below 30%”. As usual, possession (as opposed to cultivation of distribution) accounted for the vast majority (88 percent) of marijuana arrests, which in turn accounted for nearly half (45 percent) of all drug arrests. “A record number of states are expected to vote on legalizing marijuana next year, so we hope and expect to see these numbers significantly dropping soon”.

“It’s unacceptable that police still put this many people in handcuffs for something that a growing majority of Americans think should be legal”, Tom Angell, chairman of the Marijuana Majority, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

Perhaps this data will shake a few sense into those marijuana activists that continue to fight each other over whether the cannabis plant should be legalized for medicinal or recreational purposes.

Kevin Sabet, president of the anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, says the uptick may be because more people are using marijuana.

“Those getting arrest violations are usually people who are using out in public, being pulled over for driving and using, etc.”, he said.

The report doesn’t give a state-by-state breakdown, but does have a broad regional breakdown showing most of these arrests are made in the midwest.

“It’s surprising to see the total number of arrests go up, especially the number of possession arrests”, said Dan Riffle, director of federal policies at the Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates for legalization. “As long as we have these silly laws on the books, law enforcement resources will be wasted on enforcing them”.

Fox added that this is unfortunate considering the laws don’t reflect popular opinion in the United States, which is swinging away from marijuana prohibition.