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 thread article referenced a study done and published.
It read:
”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……
It may reduce crime, but only in the illegal sales and production of marijuana areas. But if the other crimes are going to increase, there isn’t any connection to the determination of allowing the drug to be legal to lower crime amounts that have increased as the headline leads people to think.
According to the Denver Post, Denver’s violent crime rate is rising faster than any other large city in the country. “Several categories went up without any clear identifiable cause with the largest rise in violent crime rate last year compared to other large cities.”
So how can they say there is less crime in the state when there is more, factually more than any other city in increase in the country? Article is a lie.
rwood
Testosterone levels fell to record lows...
Exactly.
So how can they say there is less crime in the state
Nobody said that.
Whose business is that? (Probably would mean less violent crime.)
Here was the question: Are you implying that legalization of meth is a conservative cause?
Here was your response: “I’m stating that growing government and ignoring the Constitution to “benefit society” is not a conservative cause. “
Why are you running away from the question?
Well, since you asked nicely, I will.
Here was your response: “I’m stating that growing government and ignoring the Constitution to “benefit society” is not a conservative cause. “
The clearly implied answer to your asinine question was "no".
Why are you running toward big government and ignoring the Constitution?
well they say that laughter IS the best medicine.
Now how did I know you would go there? LOL
Lol.. a colorado study? Yeah, thats credible. They will never tell the truth until the money stops.
Is it possible that police security is better around those shops?
I'm for freedom that doesn't infringe on my life or finances. I don't want to subsidize people who aren't self-sufficient. I'm concerned about indications that Fake Memory Syndrome is real, and it's worse with pot smokers. I don't want to be affected by a world of zombies who pretty much accept stuff without getting involved in any process that pushes back against the system, when necessary.
Like alkies, and the morbidly obese? What is the conservative response to taxpayer subsidization of those persons - ban alcohol and establish a Diet Police?
“The clearly implied answer to your asinine question was “no”.
OK. But you said government has no jurisdiction over drugs yet you are in favor of their jurisdiction over meth. Last I heard meth was classed as a controlled drug?
“Why are you running toward big government and ignoring the Constitution? “
In what way?
Yeah. Insurance should be for catastrophic situations. People who can't afford a lot should be given a low-cost option from a clinic, based on ability to pay. The US is getting to a point where healthy people are impoverished so that unhealthy people are given medical treatments that society can't afford.
The punchline to an old joke comes to mind: “Too lazy to steal”
“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.”
LOL! Wondering what they are saying now since traffic deaths up significantly in CO since legalizing marijuana?
Increasingly potent levels of marijuana were found in positive-testing drivers who died in crashes in Front Range counties, according to coroner data since 2013 compiled by The Denver Post. Nearly a dozen in 2016 had levels five times the amount allowed by law, and one was at 22 times the limit. Levels were not as elevated in earlier years.
Last year, all of the drivers who survived and tested positive for marijuana use had the drug at levels that indicated use within a few hours of being tested, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation, which compiles information for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System.
https://www.denverpost.com/2017/08/25/colorado-marijuana-traffic-fatalities/
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