Federal Cannabis Arrests Jump 25% Under Biden
After a dip during the peak of the pandemic in 2020, federal law enforcement agents and their partners arrested 25% more people for cannabis-related crimes in 2021, during the first year of the Biden Administration.
But while a post-pandemic bump in arrests would have been fair to expect, the biggest jump in cannabis arrests in a decade was not. The nation’s oldest cannabis reform organization NORML noted the 6,606 marijuana-related arrests in 2021 represented the most since the 8,500 arrested in 2011.
This followed Joe Biden’s February 2021 promise he would pursue decriminalization and mass expungements for people with prior cannabis convictions. A month after that promise, word got out that some staff may have been a little too honest with Joe about their past marijuana use, dozens of young White House staffers were asked to resign. So the hopes of cannabis policy reformers were squashed quickly, but the new soaring arrest numbers are certainly salt in the wound.
2021 saw a similar bump in the amount of plants destroyed by the feds and partners, via the domestic eradication program. The 5.53 million cannabis plants destroyed represented 20% more plants than the previous year.
California saw the most enforcement as usual. A total of 86% of plant seizures and 60% of arrests conducted by federal authorities happened in the Golden State.
