Insights

Marijuana Arrests Plummeted in 2020

A recent breakdown of Data from the FBI shows a steep decline in 2020 Marijuana arrests. This could be due to both Covid and legalization spreading throughout the country. With 1,155,610 drug-related arrests in total for 2020, MJ sales and possession arrests accounted for only over 30 percent (around 350K). The majority of these arrests were for possession. 

It is important to realize that criminalization of cannabis in the U.S. has been substantially reduced when compared to FBI data reported in 2019 with a total of 545,601 marijuana arrests. A 36 percent decrease in cases from 2019 to 2020. 

It would be guesswork to explain why this is the case, but it isn’t that far of a leap to assume the pandemic had a large role to play in the limited amount of people on the street and perhaps even a willingness on the part of officers to place people in jail during a pandemic. Another explanation is that legalization and acceptance of MJ is at an all time high in the US as a majority of American polled showing over 60 percent favor legalization. That’s an approval number so strong that MJ could win the presidency if it ran.  

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