As more state marijuana legalization laws come online, federal cannabis prosecutions are dropping.
That’s one takeaway from an end-of-year report released Monday night by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
At the same time, other drug prosecutions are slightly up over the past fiscal year.
“Drug crime defendants, who accounted for 28 percent of total filings, grew two percent, although defendants accused of crimes associated with marijuana decreased 19 percent,” Roberts wrote.
States that approved legalization in 2016 began to implement parts of their laws during the Fiscal Year 2018 period Roberts’s report covers.
Legal marijuana sales began in California one year ago, though gifting and home cultivation of cannabis were immediately permitted following the passage of Proposition 64. In Nevada, adults could also legally grow their own cannabis after the November 2016 election, but the rollout of retail outlets took a little longer, with the first shops opening in July 2017. After Massachusetts legalized in 2016, home cultivation was legal, though the first retail sales didn’t occur until November 2018. And in Maine, home cultivation was allowed starting January 2017, but the state still doesn’t have a retail marijuana system in place.