Cannabis arrests in Northwest Indiana counties that border Michigan and Illinois – both of which have legalized cannabis for adult use – fell between 2021 and 2025, NWI Times reports. In Lake, Porter, and La Porte counties, arrests for misdemeanor and felony cannabis charges totaled 1,272 in the first quarter of 2021 but were 734 by the fourth quarter of 2025. 

Cannabis arrests in the counties spiked to 1,742 during the second quarter of 2022 – the highest recorded during the time period – but dropped below 1,000 the following quarter, the analysis found. Arrests increased the following two quarters again, before falling below 1,000 again in the subsequent two quarters. In the fourth quarter of 2023, arrests fell to 666, but rose to 742 in the first quarter of 2024, before falling to 670 in the following quarter. 

The third quarter of 2024 saw the lowest levels of cannabis arrests across the three counties during the analysis period, at 468. The following three quarters saw three straight increases – to 734, 826, and 1,192, before decreasing again to 842 and then again to 734.   

Illinois permitted the sale of adult-use cannabis starting January 1, 2020, while Michigan launched its program in 2018. 

Local police departments accounted for the majority of the arrests, with 12,162. County Sheriff’s Departments arrested 7,736 people during the analysis period, while State Police recorded 1,466 arrests.   

Most of those arrested (11,872) were Indiana residents, while 3,690 of those arrested were from Illinois, and 4,582 were from other states. 

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State and local police made at least 218,152 marijuana-related arrests in 2025, including 200,960 for possession, which accounted for about 23% of all drug arrests nationwide. The true total may be higher because roughly 13% of law-enforcement agencies did not report arrest data to the FBI and some cannabis cases may be included among unspecified drug violations.

The FBI has published new data on arrests by state and local law enforcement across the US. The numbers are in: 218,152 people were arrested for marijuana-related offenses in 2025 alone. You read that right: in a country where medical cannabis is legal in most states, where a multibillion-dollar industry has grown around the plant, where industry executives are helping shape presidential cannabis policy, and where most Americans believe it should already be legal, hundreds of thousands of people are losing their freedom for simply having weed on them. Not for selling it, not for manufacturing it, not for violence: for possession.

If one were feeling generous, one might think that perhaps most of those arrests involved violence or evidence of intent to sell. But that’s not the case: only 17,192 of the arrests were categorized as “sales/manufacturing.” The other 200,960—that is, 92%—were for “low-level marijuana possession,” which typically involves small amounts for personal use. Possession arrests alone represent about 23% of all drug-related arrests nationwide, which totaled 858,852 in 2025. To put that figure in perspective, 200,960 arrests amount to roughly one every three minutes in the Land of the Free.

In fact, the actual number might be much higher: as NORML points out, about 13% of law enforcement agencies failed to report their data to the Bureau. In addition, there are tens of thousands of “unspecified drug abuse violations” in the report, which might include weed possession among them. All this without taking into account that the FBI has repeatedly changed its methodology over the years, making official figures harder to interpret and comparisons with previous years more difficult.

Surprising exactly no one, Texas leads the way when it comes to arresting people for small amounts of weed. From January to December 2025, 29,690 people were arrested for cannabis-related offenses,of whom 97.5% were charged with simple possession. Other states where the plant remains illegal also reported five-figure arrest totals. Specifically, Georgia arrested 12,247 people, North Carolina 12,733, Pennsylvania 12,238, Tennessee 12,099, Wisconsin 12,050, South Carolina 11,754, and Indiana 10,313. Together, these eight states accounted for more than half of all cannabis-related arrests nationwide.

States with legal weed show comparatively modest numbers, often remaining below 1,000. New York, for instance, reported only 719 possession arrests in 2025. Vermont gets the prize for the fewest arrests, with only 16 that whole year.

As NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano puts it, “it is clear that marijuana-related prosecutions still remain a primary driver of drug war enforcement in the United States. The criminalization of cannabis and the prosecution of those who possess it and consume it is a terribly destructive policy that disrupts lives and has lasting consequences. 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 is legally regulated in nearly half the states in this country.”

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The number of people being arrested for drug offences in Jersey has reduced by 32% as residents can now be lawfully prescribed medical cannabis, a police report has said.

Drug arrests in Jersey dropped from 170 in 2022 to 115 in 2025, according to the States of Jersey Police’s first Crime and Policing Statistics report, which analysed data from January 2022 to June 2026.

The report identified a “key driver” of the reduction as “a reduction of an illicit cannabis market in Jersey” due to “an increased provision of medicinal cannabis” amongst the population.

However, senior police officers have said the legal status of medicinal cannabis is creating new challenges for frontline enforcement.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Hafey told the BBC it was difficult for officers to determine whether someone was using cannabis lawfully. “Occasionally we get reports from people saying there’s a strong smell of cannabis and we go and, actually, it’s someone who says that they’ve been prescribed that cannabis, and that can cause us a real challenge,” he said.

“Quite often someone will say that they have a prescription but they might not have it on them.”

Hafey said the force supported people using prescribed medicinal cannabis lawfully but added there would “always be people that want to abuse the system”.

He said police were now focusing on the diversion of prescribed cannabis into the illegal market and would need to work more closely with prescribers, regulators and government to ensure “checks and balances are in place to prevent those people from then abusing the system”.

Data from the Government of Jersey suggests there were around 4,000 active patients on the island during the most recent audit, conducted in 2024. Medical cannabis was legalised in Jersey on January 1, 2019, allowing authorised doctors to prescribe cannabis-based products through private clinics.

Deputy Tom Coles, who previously proposed to decriminalise cannabis in 2024, said the fall in cannabis-related offences was positive because fewer people were being criminalised, but called for stronger safeguards around prescribing.

“I think there is still work around making sure that people aren’t going from one clinic to another clinic to get a large supply, which then they sell,” he said.

Coles added that Jersey should rethink its wider approach to cannabis. “My real concern comes with that we’ve got people prescribing medicinal strength levels of cannabis using it recreationally and we don’t know what the long-term impact of that’s going to be,” he said.

Politicians from both Jersey and neighbouring island Guernsey have independently advanced proposals to reform cannabis laws in recent years. In January 2026, Deputy Leadbeater of Guernsey initiated an investigation into full legalisation through a new cross-committee working group. In February 2026, Deputy Tom Binet, Jersey’s health minister, submitted proposals that would treat cannabis use as a public health issue rather than a criminal matter. A vote on the proposal was delayed due to elections, but is expected to return to the States Assembly for consideration in due course.

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