Federal law enforcement officials in 2025 charged fewer than 400 people with marijuana trafficking, the lowest total ever.
Tag: trafficking
“Although Congress has failed to amend federal cannabis laws to explicitly recognize state-legal cannabis markets, the attitudes and priorities of federal law enforcement agents and prosecutors have clearly shifted in a manner that reflects their reality. Now it’s time for Congress to do so by repealing the failed policy of federal marijuana prohibition.”
Just over 1,000 people were sentenced federally in 2020 for violating marijuana trafficking laws. That’s down 67 percent since 2016, and over 80 percent since 2012 – when Colorado and Washington became the first two states to legalize and regulate the adult-use marijuana market.
Federal marijuana trafficking prosecutions have declined significantly since the passage of statewide laws regulating the plant’s production and retail sale to adults, according to data provided by the United States Sentencing Commission.
So what are the Obama administration’s plans to quell these gangs growing influence and the surging violence surrounding the drug trade? Troublingly, the White House appears intent on recycling the very strategies that gave rise to Mexico’s infamous drug lords in the first place.
In the December 2009 issue of The Freeman I propose another solution.