A new report released by the FBI on Monday has revealed that despite more acceptance and legislation for marijuana across the U.S., marijuana arrests are still rising.
The report found that marijuana arrests had increased to 659,700 in 2017 from 653,249 in 2016.
In 2017, there were 599,282 marijuana possession arrests in the country, up from 587,516 in 2016. However data showed that busts for cannabis sales and manufacturing fell from 65,734 in 2016 to 60,418 in 2017.
“At a time when more than 100 deaths per day are caused by opioid overdoses, it is foolish to focus our limited law enforcement resources on a drug that has caused literally zero,” said Don Murphy, the federal policies director for the Marijuana Policy Project.
“Actions by law enforcement run counter to both public support and basic morality,” remarked NORML Political Director Justin Strekal.
He added, “In a day and age where twenty percent of the population lives in states which have legalized and nearly every state has some legal protections for medical cannabis or its extract, the time for lawmakers to end this senseless and cruel prohibition that ruins lives.”
Out of all of the drug arrests last year, marijuana made up 40.4% of them in the nation.
