Marijuana arrests on the rise, FBI reports

Marijuana arrests are on the rise, even as state and local governments move to relax drug laws, according to a new report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The FBI report released earlier this week found 700,993 marijuana arrests were made in 2014, an increase of more than 1 percent from 693,058 arrests made in 2013. Most of the arrests were made for possession of marijuana.

This boils down to about one marijuana arrest every 45 seconds across the country.

Marijuana legalizations advocates criticized the findings.

“Could you imagine if hundreds of thousands of adults were arrested last year simply for possessing alcohol?” asked Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. “That would be crazy. It’s even crazier that hundreds of thousands of adults were arrested for possessing a less harmful substance.

“These numbers refute the myth that nobody actually gets arrested for using marijuana,” he added. “It’s hard to imagine why more people were arrested for marijuana possession when fewer people than ever believe it should be a crime. Law enforcement officials should not be wasting their tie and resources arresting and prosecuting adults for using marijuana.”