Drug arrests fell in 2024 compared to 2023, according to the FBI’s latest Uniform Crime Report. Yet there were still many hundreds of thousands of such arrests in the United States that year—and despite legalization in many states, marijuana-related arrests still appear to represent the biggest slice.
The FBI data contain glaring inconsistencies and uncertainties, and experts have differing views on whether certain numbers are likely to be over- or underreported. When 2024 was the last year of the Biden administration, there are also questions and fears about what the trajectory will look like under President Donald Trump.
The Uniform Crime Report covers arrests and charges across numerous categories, based on incomplete reporting from many different law enforcement agencies. The 2024 edition shows a total of about 748,000 US arrests for drug possession (down about 7 percent on 2023).
Of that number, about 27 percent—just under 204,000—were classified as marijuana possession arrests. Meanwhile, about 17 percent—almost 132,000—were classified in the weirdly mixed category of “opium/cocaine possession.”
But nearly half—48 percent—of all drug possession arrests were defined even more vaguely, as “other dangerous nonnarcotic drug possession.” That’s almost 340,000 drug arrests for which we have no useful information. (The FBI offers the examples of barbiturates and benzedrine, but it’s highly improbable that they account for most of those arrests.)
A massive 44 percent of all drug sale and manufacturing arrests were classified under “unspecified” or “other nonnarcotic” substances.
Then there were over 45,000 arrests for “synthetic narcotic possession,” and 27,000 more recorded in the vaguest category of “unspecified drug possession.”
Similar problems arise when we look at “drug sale and manufacturing” arrests. The FBI counts a total of roughly 109,000 such arrests (down about 7.6 percent on 2023).
The largest subcategory with named drugs, at 33 percent of the total (36,500 arrests) is “opium/cocaine sale/manufacturing.” Marijuana represents 16 percent (close to 18,000 arrests), and there were about 6,500 arrests recorded for “synthetic narcotic sale/manufacturing.”
But a massive 44 percent of all drug sale and manufacturing arrests were classified under “unspecified” or “other nonnarcotic” substances.
There were an additional 43,000 arrests for so-called “drug abuse violations.” The FBI defines these charges as related to production, distribution and use of certain controlled substances, but it’s unclear what distinguishes them from the other categories.
None of this inspires any confidence in the statistics, but for what it’s worth, the report also gives some demographic breakdowns. It shows that marijuana possession arrests continue to grossly target Black people, who made up 42 percent of the recorded arrests—even though a small majority (52 percent) were of white people. Men were also disproportionately arrested (75 percent), and men aged 25-29 made up a disproportionate 16 percent of the recorded total.
There were broadly similar patterns for “opium/cocaine possession,” where 63 percent of recorded arrests were of white people, and 32 percent of Black people. Men aged 30-34 represented 17 percent of arrests.
The ratio for the smaller category of “synthetic narcotic possession” was 21 percent Black and 71 percent white. The large category of “other dangerous nonnarcotic drug possession” showed 76 percent of arrests being of white people—though Black people were still overrepresented compared to population size, at 17 percent.
Marijuna arrests—particularly those for possession—continue to dominate in states that haven’t legalized.
Analysis of the data by the advocacy group NORML showed how state-level legalization has contributed to national decreases in marijuana arrests.
“Nationwide, that percentage [of overall drug arrests] is being driven down by legal jurisdictions [where we] see very few low-level marijuana possession arrests taking place,” Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, told Filter.
But marijuna arrests—particularly those for possession—continue to dominate in states that haven’t legalized.
NORML showed, for instance, that 98 percent of the 27,300 marijuana arrests in Texas were for possession alone. Meanwhile nearly half of all drug arrests in Indiana were for marijuana—of which 96 percent were for possession. In states from Alabama (98 percent) to Wisconsin (95 percent) possession cases made up the vast bulk of thousands of total marijuana arrests.
NORML has also noted historic decreases in marijuana arrests over the years—they peaked in 2007, at over 870,000. But today’s reality of hundreds of thousands of arrests continuing in many parts of the country, even as a legal trade thrives elsewhere, leaves a bitter taste.
State legalization makes a big difference. “When you legalize adult-use marijuana markets, you see a precipitous decline in arrests, and that includes all types of marijuana arrests,” Armentano said. “Possession arrests fall the most, but you see declines overall.”
“We’re seeing ‘justice by geography.”
Jason Ortiz, director of strategic initiatives at the Last Prisoner Project, also reflected on regional imbalances.
“We’ve seen over the years that most of the South and the [inland] Northwest continue to arrest people at ridiculous rates,” he told Filter. “We have states like Idaho that have made their cannabis laws more punitive. “We’re seeing ‘justice by geography,’ where you have half the country in states that have reduced arrests dramatically and others that have kept their laws as severe or even [made them worse].”
While the FBI’s headline numbers are already vague and confusing, Marijuana Moment points out further contradictions within the data: Different tables in the report give four conflicting numbers for “drug abuse violations” and “drug/narcotic offenses,” with totals ranging from 822,000 up to 1.8 million. Such absurd variations go far beyond rounding errors.
The FBI is additionally limited by the voluntary participation of state and local law enforcement agencies. If any police departments choose not to report to the FBI for whatever reason, that creates another blind spot in the arrest data. Police in Florida, for instance, have historically had very low participation rates, and the same goes for the likes of Illinois, Louisiana, Hawaii and West Virginia. In 2022, the only states where at least 90 percent of police agencies reported to the FBI were California, Oklahoma and Rhode Island.
“The biggest problem is a number of local law enforcement don’t report either their entire data sets, or at all,” Armentano said. “The numbers you see are always estimates—the FBI has to try to account for gaps in the data. That’s always been the case.”
There are different interpretations of the likely relationship between the FBI marijuana numbers and reality.
Advocates have also found flagrant errors in how local police agencies report marijuana arrests to the FBI, as Marijuna Moment noted and as Filter previously reported. In 2022, Eric Sterling, a policing advisory commission member in Montgomery County, Maryland, filed a complaint to the federal Department of Justice, calling for an investigation.
Sterling found that police departments in jurisdictions where marijuana was decriminalized were reporting civil violations as criminal arrests. Despite his filing, the DOJ ultimately seems to have done nothing about it.
There are different interpretations of the likely relationship between the FBI marijuana numbers and reality. Ortiz suspects police are encouraged to inflate their marijuana-arrests reporting, when it’s the most widely used federally banned substance and they have budgets to protect.
“There are a few perverse incentives for police to report higher-than-accurate numbers, because they need to justify their budgets,” Ortiz said. “If we were to reflect the actually very low need for cannabis enforcement, that means police would have to cut their budgets. There is incentive to show they are out there arresting and locking people up.”
Armentano sees it a bit differently, however, believing that cops are incentivized to under-publicize marijuana arrests, because of how widespread support for legalization has become, and in order to avoid criticism and negative attention. If his theory is correct, it might help explain what some of the “unspecified” and “other” drug arrests really are, as well as some of the non-reporting.
“It’s been in their best interests to hide the ball,” Armentano said. “They recognize that arresting individuals for possessing small amounts of marijuana is very unpopular. It doesn’t [benefit] them to show that in some jurisdictions, police continue to make tens of thousands of arrests for minor possession. We’ve had police make the argument for years that ‘no one gets arrested for marijuana anymore.’ So there’s no interest in broadcasting the fact that hundreds of thousands of people are being arrested.”
He doesn’t discount the constrasting incentives identified by Ortiz, however. “Perhaps internally they might promote those [marijuana] numbers to other agencies [or politicians with] the ability to siphon more money to their budgets.”
Ortiz worries about the convergence of the drug war with the Trump administration’s war on immigrants.
As the first year of Trump‘s second term draws to a close, how will his priorities and policies affect drug arrest totals for 2025 and beyond? While President Joe Biden initiated a process to move marijuana from Schedule I to III—and Trump endorsed the idea while campaigning—the Trump administration has taken no action yet to actually do it.
But Armentano suspects the administration will have minimal impact on local drug policing. “I don’t think federal policy particularly drives state and local marijuana arrests,” he said. “I think the trends we’ve seen—a significant decline followed by a steady decline—will continue.”
Cause for optimism, he added, is that even in states that haven’t legalized marijuana, like Georgia, Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania, cities and towns are increasingly pursuing local decriminalization policies that cut marijuana arrest rates.
But Ortiz worries about the convergence of the drug war with the Trump administration’s war on immigrants. Regardless of what’s happening with local police agencies when it comes to marijuana arrests, he noted that ICE and other federal agencies are using marijuana and other substances to go after immigrants.
“We’re in a scary place,” he said. “It’s clear the Trump admin has no interest in rescheduling or reducing criminal penalties for cannabis. I have tried my best to reach out to Republicans, and it has not been fruitful. There clearly was a memo or decision to tell other Republicans in Congress to not work on cannabis reform—it seems to be coming directly from guys like [White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor] Stephen Miller. They see the drug and crime issue as a way to deport more Latinos.”
“I think we’re seeing they’re going to use the war on cannabis as another vehicle for deportations, and will see ICE arresting and deporting people, more so than local police,” he said. “Right now is a time when the cannabis space and those who care about our undocumented communities can find an alliance together and resist this use of drug policy to further enforce immigration law.”
Screenshot via the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Correction, October 24: This article has been edited to more accurately reflect Paul Armentano’s comments about the potential incentive for police to under-publicize marijuana arrests.