Law360 (May 13, 2026, 5:14 PM EDT) -- The pro-legalization advocacy organization
Marijuana Policy Project recently made public a report culling data from the
Federal Bureau of Investigation's crime data explorer showing that states with legalized cannabis have seen dramatic decreases in marijuana-related arrests.
The report shows that cannabis arrest rates for illicit possession and sales dropped an average of 85.53% following marijuana legalization in states that enacted it, with the 24 states that have legalized retail marijuana notching 222,261 combined fewer arrests in 2025 than they did in their respective years prior to legalization.
"One of the primary goals of legalizing cannabis is to stop ensnaring people in the criminal justice system for a plant that is less dangerous than alcohol," the MPP report said. "With cannabis legal and regulated, we anticipated that arrest rates for possession, manufacturing, and sales would plummet as demand shifted to the legal, regulated market. The data backs that up."
The report also found that, nationwide, the total number of cannabis arrests dropped to 211,104 in 2025, down from a high of 870,000 in 2007, but that states where cannabis is still treated as contraband accounted for a disproportionate number of arrests relative to their populations.
"Prohibition states made more than eight times as many cannabis arrests than legalization states in 2025, although they have a smaller total population," the report said. "In 2025, law enforcement in legalization states reported 22,357 cannabis arrests, while prohibition states reported 186,581 cannabis arrests."
Former President Joe Biden issued presidential pardons, in
December 2023 and
October 2022, for federal simple marijuana possession crimes and encouraged state governors to follow suit. Because the vast majority of arrests and convictions for simple possession and use of marijuana have taken place at the local and state level, the pardons had limited effect.
--Editing by Patrick Reagan.
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