The War on Weed Is Alive & Well
New FBI Data Confirms Cannabis Arrests Still Driving America’s War on Drugs
The data is in, and it what it confirms should come as no surprise.
The FBI’s latest report shows nearly 188,000 people we arrested for cannabis possession in 2024. Another 16,000 were arrested for selling or growing.
That accounts for more than a quarter of ALL drug arrests in the U.S. last year—making cannabis the #1 substance people are still being incarcerated for.
Meanwhile, cannabis is “legal” in over half the country.
So while dispensaries are pulling in massive amounts of tax revenue and cannabis CEOs are popping champagne, there are still hundreds of thousands of people—-mostly Black and brown—losing jobs, housing, and years of their lives over a medicinal plant.
modern slavery IS ALIVE AND WELL
If you know your history, then you know that every time America “ends” one form of exploitation, it just rebrands it.
After slavery ended, we got convict leasing camps, where “criminals” were rented out for free labor.
When that ended, we got Jim Crow laws that criminalized Blackness and funneled people right back into the system.
Then came the War on Drugs: Nixon’s excuse to target activists, hippies, and Black communities under the label of “law and order.”
So even now, when people say, “That was a long time ago,” the truth is…it never really stopped. It just evolved.
BUT WAIT, IT GETS WORSE…
When they take people out of America’s cities and imprison them in small towns, that rural area gets to count you toward their census—which means more federal money and more political representation for small towns.
The War on Drugs has been, and continues to be, a means of stealing bodies from our cities, locking them away, and using them to amass more political power in rural areas.
It’s not a conspiracy. It’s fact.
THE #NUMBER ONE THREAT TO THE PRISON INDUSTRY
I’ve been saying this for years: The #1 threat to the prison industry is legalizing cannabis.
The second you stop criminalizing a plant, you disrupt A WHOLE ECONOMY built on locking people up.
Legalization means fewer arrests > Fewer prison contracts > Fewer “bodies for profit.”
And that’s exactly why full federal legalization may never happen. Too many people benefit from keeping things the way they are.
What WE CAN DO ABOUT IT
We can’t just wait for lawmakers to “do the right thing.”
We have to stay loud, educated, and united.
🌿 Vote smart. Not just in presidential elections, but locally. Sheriffs, judges, and DAs matter.
🌿 Support clemency efforts for people still locked up over cannabis.
🌿 Keep learning and educating. The system thrives on people not knowing the truth.
If you haven’t already, go back and read my original post: “Mass Incarceration Is Modern Slavery—And It Gets Worse!”
Bless the blunt
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