The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently revealed that it seized far more marijuana plants—and made significantly more cannabis-related arrests—in 2021 than in recent prior years, despite reform efforts in states and Congress.
An annual report from DEA’s Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program says that the agency confiscated more than 5.5 million marijuana plants and arrested approximately 6,600 people over cannabis last year.
That’s a big step up in enforcement compared to 2020, amounting to an increase of nearly one million plants and more than a thousand arrests. Put into perspective, that’s a 22 percent percent increase in plants chopped down and 32 percent bump into the number of people put into handcuffs over a 12-month period.
When it comes to bulk processed marijuana seized, DEA said it took 743,920 pounds last year—up from 265,196 pounds in 2020. That’s almost three times as much.
“At a time when the overwhelming majority of voters support legalization, and when more and more states—and even members of Congress—are moving toward this direction, it is troubling to see federal agents and their local partners reversing course and reinvigorating their marijuana-related enforcement activities,” Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, who first spotted the new data, said in a blog post.
What’s more, the DEA report seems to run counter to trends shown by other federal marijuana enforcement data amid the legalization…
