The history of drug prohibitions and enforcement efforts in the United States always reflects a kind of federalism in action. Because the federal government always lacks the resources and often the political will to fully enforce drug prohibitions nationwide, state laws and local practices will inevitably shape and color the full picture of U.S. drug policy and enforcement. When alcohol prohibition was written into our nation’s Constitution, for example, state and local officials embraced an array of different approaches to enforcing temperance, which produced a patchwork of on-the-ground practices across the nation.
In modern times, marijuana prohibitions and reforms present the most salient example of national drug policies reflecting diverse and sometimes clashing federal and state laws and local practices. Though some have explored how federal marijuana prohibition has shaped state reform efforts and local enforcement realities, few have focused attention on the most tangible and arguably most consequential aspect of federal enforcement, namely federal sentences imposed for marijuana activity.
Even while formal federal marijuana law has persisted unchanged amid state-level reforms, federal marijuana enforcement on the ground has changed dramatically. Drawing on data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC), this brief notes new federal enforcement patterns that have emerged in recent years.
The impact of marijuana prohibitions and the scope of enforcement are often documented through nationwide arrest data, in part because the numbers are enormous and in part because there is little other reliable national information on marijuana enforcement.
Yearly marijuana arrest data, as collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), are dynamic: as arrests for all drug offenses increased during the War on Drugs acceleration in the 1980s, the total number of possession and sale of marijuana arrests actually dipped due to a more aggressive focus on cocaine and heroin. Yet, as state marijuana reforms picked up steam, so too did total marijuana federal and state arrests—peaking at over 850,000 arrests in 2007 and averaging over 750,000 arrests annually for more than a dozen years. Starting in 2014, FBI data showed declines in total marijuana arrests and they reached a (pre-pandemic) low of under 550,000 arrests in 2019, and then hit another new low of just over 350,000 in 2020.
Disconcertingly, as the American Civil Liberties Union has documented, one pernicious consistency in marijuana arrest data has been racial disparities, with Blacks many more times likely than Whites to be arrested for marijuana possession.
While national arrest patterns tell one story, sentences imposed for marijuana convictions reflect the most significant consequence of marijuana prohibition enforcement. Disappointingly, there seemingly has been no systematic collection or analysis of marijuana sentencing outcomes nationwide since the work done by Ryan King and Marc Mauer through the year 2000.
Indeed, even with growing attention on marijuana reform, there are no recent data on how many persons nationwide are incarcerated for marijuana offenses nor any detailed accountings of the types of offenders still incarcerated for marijuana activities in the states.
However, data assembled by the USSC allow a close look at how federal marijuana enforcement has cashed out since the start of state-level marijuana reforms in the form of yearly sentencing outcomes.
Full Policy Brief: How State Reforms Have Changed Federal Enforcement of Marijuana Prohibition