With just three months left in fiscal year 2022, federal marijuana seizures by weight by U.S. Customs and Border Protection are way down from the previous three years, continuing a trend that began at the end of 2021, even though seizure events remain on par with last year.
According to government statistics, 112,000 pounds of marijuana has been seized at the border in the fiscal year that began in October 2021, seizing between 9,500 and 19,400 pounds of marijuana each month.
By comparison, at this point in FY2021, more than 282,000 pounds had been seized. By this point in FY2020, the government had already seized more than 458,500 pounds, with June 2020 seizures alone reaching 88,500 pounds and no month’s haul coming in below 31,100 pounds.
The drop in monthly seizures begins in May 2021 and reached the current level in August 2021, the final month of that fiscal year. It is also part of larger trend, with seizures of all drugs at the border coming in at amounts well below prior years.
Interesting to note, while the overall weight of seizures is down, the number of seizure events are actually up over FY2021. There have been 10,999 seizure events this fiscal year, with an average of 10.2 pounds seized per event, on pace for 14,316 in this 12-month cycle.
According to the statistics, there were 13,864 total seizure events in FY2021, for an average of 23 pounds per event. In FY2020, there were 18,070 events for an average of 32.2 pounds per event. In FY2019 there were 20,366 events for an average of 27.3 pounds per event.
— Brian Beckley