Arrests for marijuana possession in Missouri reached a 28-year low in 2022, but marijuana possession still accounted for nearly half of all drug arrests in the state, according to new FBI data.
Out of 20,829 arrests across the state for drug possession in 2022, 8,863 arrests were for marijuana possession. While weed advocates say that number is too high, the FBI’s annual log of marijuana arrests hasn’t been that low since 1994, when the agency reported that Missouri law enforcement completed 7,237 arrests for marijuana possession.
Compare that to the 2010s, when arrests for marijuana possession soared. In 2016, the FBI logged 21,568 arrests for marijuana possession in Missouri. That figure would drop by 58 percent in fewer than six years.
As that’s happened, data shows that overall drug arrests in Missouri have declined. In 2021, however, the number of arrests for “dangerous nonnarcotic drugs” — which the FBI's website defines as barbiturates and Benzedrine — surpassed those for cannabis.
The FBI released its data for 2022 earlier this month. While it can provide a glimpse into crime trends through the years, its accuracy has been repeatedly called into question as law enforcement agencies across the country (including, notably, the St. Louis police) don’t consistently submit data.
The seemingly dramatic decrease reflects a seismic shift in Missouri’s perception of marijuana.
“The short story is that public opinions about cannabis have been changing for years,” says St. Louis-based criminal defense lawyer Joe Welch.
In 2014, the Missouri legislature updated the state’s criminal code to reduce penalties for the lowest level of marijuana possession to be punishable only by a fine, rather than jail time. Voters have since approved the legalization of medical marijuana. And last December, another voter-approved constitutional amendment, Amendment 3, took effect and legalized recreational weed.
Jack Cardetti, spokesman for the trade association MoCannTrade and lead strategist on the legalization campaigns, attributes the decrease in arrests in part to these measures.
“These dramatic drops in yearly arrests are both a function of the two voter-approved constitutional amendments, as well as smarter public safety policies that prioritize fighting serious and violent crime instead of using finite law enforcement resources on cannabis possession,” Cardetti said in a statement to the RFT.
Even before full legalization, local governments in Missouri started to chip away gradually at War on Drugs mentalities and decriminalize cannabis in certain amounts.
Efforts to decrease the penalties for possession began in St. Louis city in 2013, when aldermen voted to decriminalize cannabis and reduce $100-plus fines to $25 at the most. In 2021, the city all but legalized small amounts of pot with a bill that barred police from issuing citations for two ounces or less. A year before, Kansas City’s legislative body voted to strip the city’s code of penalties for marijuana possession.
Prosecutors also changed their outlook. A week after the medical marijuana vote, Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office announced it would stop prosecuting most marijuana possession cases. Two months later, St. Louis County announced the same.
And two years into her tenure, former Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner said her office was “hampered” by pursuing low-level cannabis offenses and would no longer bring possession cases for small amounts.
Loosening the law’s grip on cannabis hasn’t necessarily meant justice all around. The FBI’s crime data explorer does not show the demographics of those arrested for cannabis possession, but other reports indicate laws have continued to be disproportionately enforced on minority Americans.
A 2020 analysis by the American Civil Liberties Union concluded that Black people were 3.64 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession even though their cannabis use was comparable. In Missouri, the ACLU concluded Black people were 2.6 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people. An RFT analysis of St. Louis city citations from 2013 to 2017 found equally big disparities.
The FBI’s data also gives a glimpse into which law enforcement agencies in Missouri enforce cannabis laws the most.
According to the data, 39.5 percent of St. Louis County Police’s 938 drug possession arrests in 2022 were for cannabis. In St. Louis city, cannabis possession made up 14.7 percent of 644 drug possession arrests.
Kansas City Police Department beat out all other agencies in the state's most populous areas — only 5 percent of their drug possession arrests were for cannabis.
But Welch, the criminal defense lawyer, points out that access to cannabis affects how many people are arrested for it. The proliferation of cannabis across the U.S. could be part of the reason why the 2000s saw so many more arrests than in the 1980s and early ‘90s.
“Access to cannabis back then wasn’t as it is now,” Welch says.
The year 2006 appears to be the peak of cannabis arrests in Missouri. That year, law enforcement agencies made 22,138 arrests for cannabis possession.
That doesn’t surprise Brennan England, founder of Cola Private Lounge and president of Minorities for Medical Marijuana Missouri.
The West Coast’s cannabis market started to swell around that time, according to England, and people started transporting weed from California.
“From 2005 to 2010, there was a huge explosion of good weed,” England says.
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