Indopedia All Things Marijuana
New DEA data from 2016 has given us a clear look at cannabis enforcement in America, and it is not a pretty picture. While legal weed is spreading like, well, weeds, the feds are still locking up hundreds of thousands of marijuana users, with more nonviolent cannabis arrests made than for all violent crimes combined. On the clandestine cultivation side of things, the DEA also bolstered their stats, seizing 20% more marijuana plants than the year before.
According to a breakdown from NORML, the DEA seized 5.3 million marijuana plants in 2016, almost a million more than the 4.25 million grabbed in 2015. This marks the highest amount since 2011, before any state had legalized recreational cannabis, when federal agents confiscated 6.7 million plants.
Even with legal weed pushing anti-cannabis politicians into a tailspin of worry over black market bud coming out of Colorado, Washington and Oregon, the DEA’s 2016 cultivation crackdowns were performed in the same manor as previous years, with over 70% of those seizures taking place in California.
Outside of the Golden State, most of the DEA’s grow op attention was focused on Kentucky, Texas, Tennessee, and West…
