FBI: In These States, Over Half of All Drug-Related Arrests Are for Marijuana
- In 2025, over 50% of all drug-related arrests in six states (Louisiana, Idaho, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Kansas) were for marijuana possession, according to FBI data.
- Louisiana had the highest percentage, with more than 62% of drug arrests for marijuana, and recently increased penalties for cannabis possession to felony offenses in some cases.
- Despite legal adult possession in Washington D.C., marijuana-related arrests nearly doubled from 2024 to 2025, mainly due to public use charges remaining criminal misdemeanors.
- NORML highlights that prosecuting marijuana offenses diverts law enforcement resources and disproportionately impacts younger, poorer, and minority communities, calling for reforms aligned with changing public attitudes and legalized cannabis in many states.
More than 50 percent of all drug-related arrests made by police in six states – Louisiana, Idaho, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Kansas – in 2025 were for marijuana, according to the latest data available from the FBI and posted on its Crime Data Explorer website.
In four additional states, as well as in the District of Columbia, marijuana-related arrests comprised nearly half of all drug arrests.
In Louisiana, over 62 percent of all drug-related arrests in 2025 were for marijuana possession — the highest percentage in the country. In June, Republican Gov. Jeff Landy signed legislation into law increasing criminal penalties for cannabis possession in certain circumstances to a felony offense, punishable by up to one year in prison and hard labor.
In Iowa and Idaho, 55 percent of all drug-related arrests in 2025 were for marijuana. Last year, a new law took effect in Idaho imposing new mandatory minimum penalties for people convicted of minor marijuana possession offenses. Nearly 5,000 Idahoans were arrested for low-level marijuana possession offenses that year.
In Wisconsin, police made over 11,400 marijuana possession arrests in 2025, the third highest total in the nation. Police in Georgia made over 11,200 cannabis possession arrests, the fourth highest total in the country. Police in Indiana made over 9,800 marijuana possession arrests, the eighth highest total of any state.
Although the private possession of marijuana by adults is legal in the District of Columbia, the city still reported nearly 1,600 marijuana-related arrests in 2025 — some 46 percent of all drug arrests. This figure is more than twice as many as were reported in 2024, and greater than four times the total reported in 2023. Of those arrested, most were charged with public use, which remains a criminal misdemeanor.
By contrast, marijuana-related arrests comprised only a fraction of all drug arrests in most other jurisdictions where adult-use cannabis is legal.
“In many prohibition states, a significant portion of law enforcement and prosecutorial resources are still being directed toward arresting tens of thousands of cannabis consumers for activities that are now perfectly legal in nearly half of this country,” NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano said.
He added: “This is a tremendous waste of time and money, and it is a unnecessarily destructive and disruptive policy for those directly impacted by it. Low-level marijuana offenders, many of them younger, poor, and people of color, should not be saddled with an arrest, a criminal record, and with the lifelong penalties and stigma associated with it for engaging in behavior that most Americans nationwide no longer believe ought to be a crime.”
A state-by-state breakdown of 2025 marijuana arrest data is available from NORML.