Police in ten states — Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Georgia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Indiana, Louisiana, and Alabama — combined to make over 131,000 marijuana-related arrests in 2025, according to the latest data available from the FBI. This total is roughly 60 percent of the marijuana arrests in the nation.
Like in prior years, Texas led the nation in marijuana-related arrests. Texas police made over 29,000 marijuana-related arrests in 2025, approximately 14 percent of the national total. Ninety-eight percent of those arrested for marijuana-related violations in Texas were charged with simple possession. Under Texas law, low-level cannabis possession is classified as a criminal misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days incarceration and a $2,000 fine.
Five other states reported more than 12,000 marijuana arrests in 2025: North Carolina (12,733), Georgia (12,247), Pennsylvania (12,238), Tennessee (12,099), and Wisconsin (12,050). In each of these states, 90 percent or more of those arrested were charged with possession only. All five states classify low-level marijuana possession as a criminal offense, with four of the five states punishing the offense with potential jail time.
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 has signed legislation (HB 568) into law increasing criminal penalties for cannabis possession in certain circumstances to a felony offense, punishable by one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Overall, police made at least 218,152 total arrests for marijuana-related violations last year, according to data posted on the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer website. (This total is an underestimate because approximately 13 percent of law enforcement agencies failed to report their arrest data to the FBI for 2025. The total also fails to calculate how many cannabis-related arrests are included in the tens of thousands of “unspecified drug abuse violations” reported by the FBI.)
While marijuana-related arrests have largely held steady, or in some instances increased, in jurisdictions where cannabis remains illegal, they have sharply fallen in the 24 states that have legalized it for adults. Specifically, five states reported fewer than 100 marijuana possession arrests in 2025: Alaska (92), Maine (96), Montana (35), Rhode Island (99), and Vermont (16). (Two notable exceptions to this trend are Illinois and the District of Columbia, which reported 5,731 and 1,336 marijuana possession arrests respectively in 2025.)
“Today, the threat of arrest for cannabis possession largely comes down to geography,” NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano said. “In nearly half the states in this country, low-level marijuana arrests have fallen nearly to zero. Elsewhere in America, police continue to disrupt hundreds of thousands of lives and waste countless tax dollars and prosecutorial resources on activities that most Americans no longer believe ought to be a crime and that, throughout much of the United States, no longer is.”
A state-by-state breakdown of marijuana-related arrests is available online from NORML.