The Big Fall in the US Government’s Marijuana Arrests since States Started Legalizing

Marijuana is still illegal under United States law, as it was before the waves through states to first legalize marijuana for medical use and then adopt, starting in 2012, “recreational marijuana” legalization. Faced with this expanding of respect for free choice, the US government has backed off in large part, scaling down its war on marijuana effort.

A Tuesday post at the website of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) provides some quantification of the extent to which the US government has backed off in the marijuana sector of the drug war. There has been “a 93 percent decline in federal marijuana trafficking arrests since 2012, when Colorado and Washington became the first two states to regulate the adult-use marijuana market.” The post also notes there has been “a 98 percent decline in marijuana-related seizure activity since 2013” at the US-Mexico border.

The US government often seems an unstoppable oppressor. But, as the statistics in the NORML post reveal, action by states, and the people directly — many state-level marijuana law changes were put in place via ballot measures, can lead the way to the US government exercising greater respect for individual rights.