Marijuana Arrests Fall To 20-Year Low, But Someone Is Still Getting Busted About Every Minute

Police made fewer arrests for marijuana-related offenses last year than they have in any year since 1996, according to crime data the FBI released Monday. 

Still, authorities in the U.S. made 643,000 arrests for marijuana-related charges in 2015 ― or about one every 49 seconds. Charges related to the drug accounted for 5.9 percent of all arrests, and about 43.2 percent of all drug arrests. 

The number of marijuana arrests has been generally decreasing since peaking in 2007. That year, police made 872,720 total arrests related to the…