According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, in 2017 there were an estimated 10,554,985 arrests by law enforcement nationwide for all criminal offenses, of which 518,617 were for violent offenses and 1,249,757 arrests were for property offenses. Also that year, there were 1,632,921 arrests for drug law violations.

Most arrests for drug law violations are for possession. In 2017, possession offenses accounted for 85.4% of all drug arrests (1,394,515 out of 1,632,921 total arrests). Only 14.6%, or 238,404 arrests, in 2017 were for sale or manufacture of a drug.

The White House Council of Economic Advisers released its analysis of the economic costs of illegal opioid use, related overdoses, and overdose mortality in November 2017. It reported a dramatically higher estimate than previous analyses, largely due to a change in methodology. Previous analyses had used a person's estimated lifetime earnings to place a dollar value on that person's life. According to the CEA, "We diverge from the previous literature by quantifying the costs of opioid-related overdose deaths based on economic valuations of fatality risk reduction, the “value of a statistical life” (VSL)."

The marijuana legalization and drug policy reform movements are part and parcel of the movement for social justice. Common Sense for Drug Policy Foundation, its board, and its staff are absolutely opposed to racism and fascism, and we are appalled and disgusted by white supremacists. The events in #Charlottesville, especially the tragic death of Heather Heyer along with the other violent acts perpetrated by neo-Nazis, KKK, and their sympathizers, are unacceptable in any civilized society, and must be condemned in the strongest way possible. It is not enough to stand idly by and watch. We urge every reform organization and every person who supports marijuana legalization or drug policy reform to stand up, speak out, and #Resist.

In 2015 there were 1,488,707 arrests for drug law violations out of a total 10,797,088 arrests nationwide for all offenses.

The FBI has released its new Uniform Crime Report for 2015, the annual statistical report on crime in the US. According to the UCR, police made a total of 10,797,088 arrests for all offenses in 2015, a significant drop from the previous year's total of 11,205,833, and a huge decline from twenty years previously in the mid-1990s, when total arrests topped the fifteen million mark.

The PBS Frontline two-hour special "Chasing Heroin" aired February 23, 2016. The full-length video, transcripts, and special added features are available through the Frontline website.