Violent Crime Drops Where People Have Access to Marijuana
Two scientific
papers suggest the dire warnings we've heard about marijuana for decades don't
hold water.
by Paul Armentano
Opponents of
marijuana legalization, particularly members of law
enforcement,
frequently claim that liberalizing cannabis laws will lead to an increase in incidences of
criminal activity, such as burglary, robbery, and driving under the influence.
But two recent scientific papers report that just the opposite is true.
In the most recent
paper, published online in March in the scientific journal PLoS ONE,
researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas reported that the enactment of
laws legalizing people’s access to medical marijuana is not associated with any
rise in statewide criminal activity, and that it may even be related to
reductions in incidences of violent crime.
Investigators
tracked crime rates across all 50 states in the years between 1990 and 2006,
during which time 11 states—Alaska (1998), California (1996), Colorado (2000),
Hawaii (2000), Maine (1999), Montana (2004), Nevada (2000), Oregon (1998),
Rhode Island (2006), Vermont (2004), and Washington (1998)—legalized the use,
home cultivation, and (in some cases) the retail dispensing of marijuana for
medical purposes. (A total of 20 states and the
District of Columbia have now approved similar laws.)
Authors reviewed
FBI Uniform Crime Report data to determine whether there exists any association
between the enactment of medicinal cannabis laws and rates of statewide
criminal activity, specifically the number of reported crimes involving
homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, and auto theft. Their
analysis is the first to look at multiple offenses across multiple states and
time periods to determine whether medical marijuana legalization impacts state
crime rates.
Authors reported
that the passage of medical marijuana laws is not associated with an increase
in any of the seven crime types assessed, but that liberalized laws are
associated with decreases in certain types of violent crime. Authors wrote:
“The central
finding gleaned from the present study was that MML (medical marijuana
legalization) is not predictive of higher crime rates and may be related to
reductions in rates of homicide and assault. Interestingly, robbery and
burglary rates were unaffected by medicinal marijuana legislation, which runs
counter to the claim that dispensaries and grow houses lead to an increase in
victimization due to the opportunity structures linked to the amount of drugs
and cash that are present.”
They concluded:
“In sum, these
findings run counter to arguments suggesting the legalization of marijuana for
medical purposes poses a danger to public health in terms of exposure to
violent crime and property crimes. To be sure, medical marijuana laws
were notfound to have a crime exacerbating effect on any of the seven
crime types.
“On the
contrary, our findings indicated that MML (medical marijuana legalization)
precedes a reduction in homicide and assault. While it is important to remain
cautious when interpreting these findings as evidence that
MML reduces crime, these results do fall in line with recent evidence
and they conform to the longstanding notion that marijuana legalization may
lead to a reduction in alcohol use due to individuals substituting marijuana
for alcohol.
“Given the
relationship between alcohol and violent crime, it may turn out that
substituting marijuana for alcohol leads to minor reductions in violent crimes
that can be detected at the state level.”
Commenting on
the findings in an accompanying
news release, the study’s lead author, Robert Morris, associate professor
of criminology, said, "The results are remarkable.… It takes away the
subjective comments about the link between marijuana laws and crime so the
dialogue can be more in tune with reality."
The paper’s
results, specifically the notion that cannabis liberalization may lead to a
reduction in alcohol-induced criminal activity, are similar to those previously
documented
in a study published last year in the Journal of Law and Economics. In
that study, researchers at Montana State University, the University of Oregon,
and the University of Colorado assessed whether the enactment of medical
cannabis laws was associated with a reduction in incidences of alcohol-related
traffic fatalities for the years 1990 to 2010. It was.
Authors wrote:
“[T]he legalization of medical marijuana is associated with a 13.2 percent
decrease in fatalities in which at least one driver involved had a positive BAC
level. … Why does legalizing medical marijuana reduce traffic fatalities?
Alcohol consumption appears to play a key role. … Using individual-level data
from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) …, we find that
MMLs (medical marijuana laws) are associated with decreases in the probability
of [an individual] having consumed alcohol in the past month, binge drinking,
and the number of drinks consumed.
“The negative
relationship between the legalization of medical marijuana and traffic
fatalities involving alcohol lends support to the hypothesis that marijuana and
alcohol are substitutes,” authors concluded.
Separate studies
have also failed to link the establishment of marijuana retail dispensaries
with any alleged increases in criminal activity. A 2011
study of crime rates in Los Angeles published by the Rand Corporation
"found no evidence that medical marijuana dispensaries in general cause
crime to rise."
(Disturbingly, Rand
withdrew the paper shortly following its publication because its
findings were publicly criticized by the Los Angeles city attorney's office,
which had long claimed that these operations were magnets for various street
crimes.) A followup study commissioned
by the federal government in 2012 similarly reported that the proliferation of
cannabis dispensaries is not associated with elevated rates of either violent
crimes or property crimes.
It concluded:
"There were no observed cross-sectional associations between the density
of medical marijuana dispensaries and either violent or property crime rates in
this study. These results suggest that the density of medical marijuana
dispensaries may not be associated with crime rates or that other factors, such
as measures dispensaries take to reduce crime (i.e., doormen, video cameras),
may increase guardianship such that it deters possible motivated
offenders."
Most recently,
localized crime data from Colorado once again reinforced the notion that pot
legalization isn’t
associated with increased criminal activity. According to a report in Vox.com,
incidences of both violent crime and property crimes have dipped slightly
during the three-month period following that state’s enactment of full-scale
marijuana legalization. Yet members of law enforcement are still continuing to
publicly claim otherwise. Some things never change.
From Alternet @ http://www.alternet.org/drugs/increased-access-cannabis-associated-reductions-violent-crimes?paging=off¤t_page=1#bookmark
For more information about marijuana see http://nexusilluminati.blogspot.com/search/label/marijuana
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And that's what the government wants... A group of pacified sheeple as they smoke dope when their rounded up into NAZI (criminal Jew) style concentration camps!
ReplyDeleteNazis rounded up drug users. They knew that these people would usually question authority and the domineering paradigm - unlike supine alcoholics. Witness the state of the alcoholic totalitarian USSR and Russia
DeleteExaggerate much?
ReplyDeleteAgree marijuana legalization can reduce the rate of traffic accident as compared to the alcohol.
ReplyDelete