The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) lately revealed that it seized much more marijuana vegetation—and made considerably extra cannabis-related arrests—in 2021 than in latest prior years, regardless of reform efforts in states and Congress.
An annual report from DEA’s Home Hashish Eradication/Suppression Program says that the company confiscated greater than 5.5 million marijuana vegetation and arrested roughly 6,600 individuals over hashish final yr.
That’s a giant step up in enforcement in comparison with 2020, amounting to a rise of practically a million vegetation and greater than a thousand arrests. Put into perspective, that’s a 22 p.c p.c improve in vegetation chopped down and 32 p.c stumble upon the variety of individuals put into handcuffs over a 12-month interval.
On the subject of bulk processed marijuana seized, DEA mentioned it took 743,920 kilos final yr—up from 265,196 kilos in 2020. That’s virtually thrice as a lot.
“At a time when the overwhelming majority of voters help legalization, and when increasingly states—and even members of Congress—are shifting towards this course, it’s troubling to see federal brokers and their native companions reversing course and reinvigorating their marijuana-related enforcement actions,” Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, who first noticed the brand new information, said in a weblog submit.
What’s extra, the DEA report appears to run counter to traits proven by different federal marijuana enforcement information amid the legalization motion.
FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program, for instance, has proven a notable lower in hashish “arrests” which can be made on the native and state degree as extra states enact reform. (Nonetheless, consultants have raised questions in regards to the high quality of FBI’s information, primarily based on alleged confusion amongst regulation enforcement companies about reporting necessities.)
In a latest report, the Congressional Analysis Service mentioned that the unfold of authorized hashish states domestically, mixed with worldwide reform efforts, has diminished demand for illicit marijuana from Mexico.
As a part of its Fiscal 12 months 2023 efficiency finances abstract submitted to Congress earlier this yr, DEA additionally acknowledged that as extra marijuana is being produced domestically within the U.S., it’s undermining illicit hashish trafficking from Mexico.
It’s not clear how precisely that squares with the latest information from 2021.
“The truth that these interdiction efforts are rising—at nice value to the taxpayer—regardless of rising momentum for legalization is a testomony to the failure of federal prohibition and unnecessarily burdensome state regulatory insurance policies,” Morgan Fox, political director of NORML, mentioned.
“The options to this example are past apparent at this level, they usually don’t contain regulation enforcement officers placing themselves in danger by dropping out of helicopters or conducting armed raids. It’s incumbent on policymakers to pursue evidenced-based, market-oriented, and justice-focused insurance policies to reduce unregulated hashish exercise, they usually’ve by no means had a greater alternative to take action.”
A research launched by the Cato Institute in 2018 equally discovered that “state-level marijuana legalization has significantly undercut marijuana smuggling.”
Federal marijuana trafficking circumstances additionally continued to say no in 2020 as extra states have moved to legalize, an evaluation from the U.S. Sentencing Fee (USSC) that was launched in June discovered.
Federal prosecutions of drug-related crimes total elevated in 2019, however circumstances involving marijuana dropped by greater than 1 / 4, based on an end-of-year report launched by Supreme Courtroom Chief Justice John Roberts in December.