The FBI report for 2023 finally came out, and everyone is parsing through the data. One promising statistic is that crime is down 3% from 2022, with murder/manslaughter down even more, at 11.6%.
However, it’s disheartening to see in the data that over 200,000 people were arrested for just the possession of marijuana. Another 16,000 were arrested for cannabis sales and/or manufacturing.
This is only a 10,000 difference from the year before despite a growing consensus in the country that marijuana should be legal, and the Biden administration making efforts to pardon those with federal charges for possession.
One area that does seem to be improving is the seizures of cannabis on the border with Mexico, which dropped down to 61,000 pounds in 2023, a 29% drop.
When the FBI releases their data, they do so in an interactive web page that anyone can access. Check it out if you’re interested, the data is pretty customizable.
