Posted on 09/15/2019 11:51:37 AM PDT by NobleFree
New research shows crime rates dropped substantially in areas with marijuana dispensaries, running counter to fears that pot shops drum up crime.
The study, published this month in the journal of Regional Science and Urban Economics, analyzed crime data from Denver between January 2013 and December 2016. Colorado, which legalized medical marijuana nearly two decades ago, kicked off sales of recreational pot in 2014.
”The results imply that an additional dispensary in a neighborhood leads to a reduction of 17 crimes per month per 10,000 residents, which corresponds to roughly a 19 percent decline relative to the average crime rate over the sample period,” the study states.
While those findings are highly localized, Illinois State University criminology professor Ralph Weisheit said the results could be “magnified in Illinois.” That’s because the state’s 610-page pot law prioritizes criminal justice and social equity and encourages the hiring of people from “economically-impoverished neighborhoods,” Weisheit said.
“More than any other state, the law is loaded with sections that encourage economic development and employment in areas that have high levels of poverty and a high level of previous marijuana arrests,” he added.
In Denver, researchers found the sharpest decrease in nonviolent crimes, like criminal trespassing, criminal mischief, simple assault and public-order crimes. The study also found a reduction in violent crime that was driven by a drop in aggravated assault, though those findings weren’t statistically significant.
Crime dropping locally appears to be consistent with an increased police or private security presence in or around pot shops. According to David Mok-Lamme, one of the study’s co-authors, private guards tasked with protecting dispensaries’ cash and product might have a “positive impact on crime rates” — but there’s not enough available data to know for sure.
Since the research shows that crime actually decreases “in a meaningful way,” Mok-Lamme said he hopes the study “causes people to rethink those thoughts they may have about where dispensaries choose to open.”
Westchester police chief Steven Stelter, president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, said he’s concerned about an overall rise in crime after recreational pot is legalized but doesn’t know whether crime rates will be affected specifically around dispensaries.
“It depends where they put these dispensaries” and whether they attract visitors from elsewhere, Stelter said.
His main concerns include black market cannabis flooding into Illinois as well as increases in traffic crashes and marijuana use among children.
“We’re just gonna have to sit around and wait — and we’ll be able to say I told you so in a few years,” he said.
In Illinois, a growing number of municipalities are moving to ban sales of recreational pot. Naperville’s City Council voted earlier this month to do just that. Weisheit said he isn’t surprised.
“That’s just being cautious,” he said. “But I’m guessing that the mindset will gradually change over time. First of all, as money rolls in. And secondly, as they see that it’s not turned out to be the series of terrible events that they thought might happen with legalization.”
Still, another study, conducted between 2012 and 2015 and published earlier this year in the Justice Quarterly journal, found that crime rates around Denver pot shops initially increased when recreational marijuana was legalized, but it then declined. And the correlation between crime and the shops’ presence weakened significantly over time.
Lorine Hughes, a University of Colorado Denver professor who co-authored the study, said the slightly conflicting results of the studies were likely attributable to their differing methodologies. While Mok-Lamme’s study analyzed individual census tracts, Hughes said her research focused on smaller areas. Her study also looked at a shorter period of time after recreational pot was legalized. She said because crime was very low to begin with in some areas she analyzed, it’s difficult to jump to too many conclusions.
She also said her results likely won’t translate to other cities: “You can’t say because this is what we found in Denver, this is what you’re going to find in Chicago.”
Bruce Barcott, senior editor of the pot news website Leafly, which is owned by a major investor in the pot industry, said his review of other studies, by and large, shows that “crime rates in communities where cannabis stores have opened have been either unaffected or the crime rate generally decreases.”
He said marijuana legalization “frees up cops to do their job.”
“Any time that you can free up police resources from an activity that really is not a crime and is no longer a crime, that’s going to positively affect the police’s ability to do their job across all aspects,” he said.
The good Stoner is a debit to society.
Collectivist twaddle. Guns and drugs are simply none of government's business - and the Constitution gives the fderal government no jurisdiction over either.
No too surprising that crime would drop with more armed security in the area...
“Crime dropping locally appears to be consistent with an increased police or private security presence in or around pot shops.”
More cops, less crime.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/pot-fuels-surge-drugged-driving-deaths-n22991
With the pot vaping and the drugged driving, I think the dea is going to set up the dispensaries once the industry grows a bit more and the government media puts out stories against pot. You know, most banks won’t take the dispensaries’ cash. It’s still a schedule 1 drug federally.
I’m just making an observation. IMO, each state should decide on drugs, not feds. Like healthcare, the States should have sovereignty here. But with respect to firearms, if it’s in the BOR, the states have to respect individual rights, so for example a state can’t pass a law against freedom of speech as well.
False. "The law didn't decriminalize public urination or unauthorized camping. You can still serve up to 60 days in jail for both if you're caught.
"The difference is you previously faced up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $999." - https://www.9news.com/article/news/verify/verify-no-denver-didnt-legalize-public-urination/73-503294787
That's what the U.S. Constitution demands.
From your link:
“marijuana can be detected in the blood for one week after consumption, perhaps leading chronic consumers to be wrongly arrested, critics of the law assert.
“A separate study — also based on FARS data — found that in states where medical marijuana was approved, traffic fatalities decrease by as much as 11 percent during the first year after legalization. Written by researchers at the University of Colorado, Oregon and Montana State University, the paper was published in 2013 in the Journal of Law & Economics.
“Those authors theorized pot, for some, becomes a substitute for alcohol. They cited a recent, 13-percent drop in drunk-driving deaths in states where medical marijuana is legal.”
nothing good has come from the use of those substances, legalizing them won’t change that. However, let us agree to disagree about this matter.
“Collectivist twaddle. “
Which do you not agree with?
Feel free to post links.
are the data without political bias.
So cops never speak out against legalization?
What legalization will change is the monopolization of the market by violent criminals.
Everyone was too high to commit any crimes :)
Actually, I’ve never met a stoner who was a criminal in any real sense of the word, except using pot, which is illegal.
Heroin junkies and meth heads and crack addicts will steal and worse to get money for their drugs.
Stoners might offer to mow the lawn for 30 bucks :)
I agree with you 100%.
Alkies would too - only because their drug is legal, they can scrape together the purchase price without stealing etc. Just sayin' ...
Or result in those violent criminals coercing lawful producers to give them a stake in the legal business. Every organized crime group in the country has always done this? why would it be any different now?
Oh, that’s right. They invented a new lower class charge to protect illegals from deportation.
Thank You for posting NobleFree.
Could happen - but there's no reason to think it could happen enough to offset the loss of market.
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