Key Takeaways
- FWD.us reported a 6% increase in marijuana possession arrests from 2024 to 2025, reversing a decade-long trend of decline.
- Black Americans accounted for 83% of the increase in arrests, despite similar marijuana usage rates compared to other racial groups.
- Eight southern states, including Texas and Georgia, saw the largest rises in marijuana arrests, with Texas reporting a gain of 2,165 arrests.
- Federal marijuana rescheduling remains separate from state laws, as recreational marijuana is still classified as Schedule I.
- The report emphasizes that the surge in marijuana arrests contradicts the trend of expanding legal access to marijuana across states.
FWD.us, a policy organization focused on criminal justice and immigration, analyzed FBI Crime Data Explorer arrest records covering 2024 and 2025 for its report “Arresting Progress,” published earlier this month. The analysis found that simple marijuana possession arrests climbed from 190,182 in 2024 to 201,273 in 2025, an increase of 11,091 arrests, or about 6%.
That marks the first increase in marijuana possession arrests in at least a decade, excluding 2021, when FBI data collection was incomplete. The reversal comes even though recreational or medical marijuana is now legal in some form in 41 states.
The increase in marijuana arrests happened alongside a larger rise in low-level arrests the report tracked, including vagrancy and other drug possession charges. FWD.us’s report focuses primarily on those categories plus immigration violations, but this article covers the marijuana findings specifically.
Why Did Black Americans Account for Most of the Increase?
The racial breakdown is the most glaring part of the report. Between 2024 and 2025, marijuana possession arrests involving Black Americans rose by 9,201. Arrests involving white Americans rose by 1,571. Arrests involving Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander people rose by 93, Asian American arrests rose by 50, and arrests involving American Indian or Alaska Native people actually fell by 4.
Put together, Black Americans accounted for approximately 83% of the national increase in marijuana possession arrests, despite making up a much smaller share of the overall population. Marijuana arrests involving Black Americans rose nearly 10% in a single year, while arrest numbers for other groups stayed largely flat.
Black Americans now account for roughly 45% of all marijuana possession arrests nationwide. In terms of arrest rate, Black Americans were arrested at 182 per 100,000 residents compared with 41 per 100,000 for white residents, more than four times the rate, according to the full FWD.us report.
That gap exists even though national survey data shows Black and white Americans use marijuana at similar rates. FWD.us cites the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health to make that point. The report also notes this disparity had been narrowing in recent years before the 2025 spike.
Which States Saw the Biggest Jump in Marijuana Arrests?
FWD.us found that 75% of the national increase in marijuana possession arrests occurred in just eight southern states: Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida, North Carolina, and Arkansas. None of these states have legalized recreational marijuana.
| State | Increase in arrests | Percent increase |
|---|---|---|
| Texas | +2,165 | +8% |
| Georgia | +1,401 | +14% |
| Alabama | +1,147 | +16% |
| Mississippi | +916 | +24% |
| South Carolina | +718 | +8% |
| Florida | +701 | +12% |
| District of Columbia | +695 | +108% |
| North Carolina | +627 | +6% |
| Arkansas | +612 | +14% |
| Iowa | +528 | +10% |
Washington, D.C. stands out on this list even though it isn’t one of the eight southern states driving most of the increase. Arrests there more than doubled, with the highest monthly totals coming shortly after the National Guard deployment in the District.
FWD.us attributes the national increase, in part, to the federal immigration enforcement surge and increased law enforcement funding under the second Trump administration. That’s the organization’s interpretation of what’s driving the trend, not a settled fact established by the arrest data itself, and it’s worth reading the full report for the reasoning behind that conclusion.
What Was Happening with Marijuana Policy Before This Report?
Context matters here. Twenty-four states have legalized marijuana for adult use since Colorado’s Amendment 64 passed in 2012. FWD.us puts the number of states with legal recreational or medical marijuana at 41, while NPR, citing the Congressional Research Service, has reported 40 states with medical programs and 24 with recreational legalization. The exact count varies slightly depending on the source and how programs are categorized, but the overall picture is consistent: most of the country now lives somewhere with some form of legal access.
Pew Research reported in February 2024 that most Americans live in a state with legal marijuana, and most of those people have at least one dispensary in their county. That expansion of legal access is part of why the 2025 arrest increase reads as a reversal rather than a continuation of an existing trend.
Zooming out further, the Council on Criminal Justice found that by 2024, arrests for drug offenses overall were roughly half what they were at their 2006 peak. That figure covers drug offenses broadly, not marijuana specifically, but it illustrates just how long the downward trend had been running before 2025 interrupted it.
Where Does Federal Marijuana Rescheduling Stand Right Now?
Marijuana’s legal status at the federal level has also been shifting, separately from the arrest numbers above. In December 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing the attorney general to expedite marijuana rescheduling. On April 22, 2026, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche moved FDA-approved marijuana products and state-licensed medical marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, a change that does not affect recreational marijuana. That order was published in the Federal Register on April 28, 2026.
The DEA held a 60-day expedited registration window for medical operators that closed June 22, 2026, followed by administrative hearings on broader rescheduling that ran from June 29 to July 15, 2026, with 14 witnesses testifying. On September 9, 2026, the D.C. Circuit declined to stay the medical rescheduling order.
As of early September 2026, the DEA had not issued a decision on rescheduling recreational marijuana, which remains classified as Schedule I. More recently, a DEA judge rejected a request from anti-rescheduling groups to reopen the hearing record, though new briefs were allowed.
It’s important to separate this federal process from the arrest data above. Rescheduling is not legalization, and it has no bearing on state-level possession laws. The marijuana possession arrests tracked in the FWD.us report happened under state and local statutes, which remain unaffected by whatever the DEA eventually decides about the federal schedule.
Frequently Asked Questions
According to FWD.us’s analysis of FBI arrest data, marijuana possession arrests rose from 190,182 in 2024 to 201,273 in 2025, an increase of 11,091 arrests, or about 6%.
FWD.us found that marijuana possession arrests involving Black Americans rose by 9,201 between 2024 and 2025, compared with 1,571 for white Americans, even though national survey data shows similar usage rates across racial groups. Black Americans are arrested at more than four times the rate of white Americans, 182 per 100,000 compared with 41 per 100,000.
Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida, North Carolina, and Arkansas together accounted for about 75% of the national increase in marijuana possession arrests. Texas recorded the largest increase at 2,165 additional arrests, and Washington, D.C. saw arrests more than double.
Recreational marijuana remains classified as Schedule I as of this report. In April 2026, the Justice Department moved FDA-approved and state-licensed medical marijuana products to Schedule III, but that change does not extend to recreational marijuana or to state possession laws.
No. The FWD.us figures cover marijuana possession arrests specifically, not all marijuana-related offenses such as sales or manufacturing. FBI arrest data also depends on voluntary agency reporting, which is incomplete in some jurisdictions, so the true national total of marijuana-related arrests may be higher.
