Colorado prosecutor: Marijuana-related murders are skyrocketing

American Thinker ^ | June 1, 2016 | Sierra Rayne

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

According to the latest reports coming out of Colorado, marijuana is a major cause of homicides in the state, and the problem is only getting worse.

"There is increased crime, sometimes violent crime, associated with legalization of marijuana," Brauchler said. "That's not what you'd expect. You'd expect the harder-core drugs." ... "If cash is the only way to acquire marijuana, crime follows cash," Brauchler said ... Brauchler believes the legalization of marijuana is partly to blame for the rise in crime. "It is easier for there to be black market in a legalized system than there was before," he said.

This all wasn't supposed to happen. The pot legalization advocates told us that legalized marijuana would reduce crime and effectively eliminate the black market. Now we have experienced and respected prosecutors saying they are seeing, firsthand, the exact opposite.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

When we were looking for a house we found a property that was pretty much what we were looking for. But the place just did not set right.

When I checked I found it was in a medical marijuana grow zone.

I took the place off my list.

Might as well hang out a "please rob us" sign.

[HerrBlucher]

If I was a pot smoker I would just grow my own. My neighbor does.

[cherry]

this was never about making crime go down etc.....it was purely about getting the public addicted to another big money maker....

alcohol...cigs...gambling...now pot....

[nathanbedford]

All this time all we had to do was make marijuana illegal and the problem would be solved. Who knew?

With this great insight we can aim the law at gambling, drinking and prostitution.

[Cololeo]

I think I might like to see the stats on that. Living in the midst of all this crime and murder, I haven’t seen any change at all. If there was, it would be all over the papers.

[cherry]

here in Washington, it costs money to get the weed.....people want it and can't afford it...easiest thing to do is to steal from the stores, which has happened several times....next thing is to rob someone else of their money or their weed...

no matter what the idiots who voted for this deserve to be robbed of their stuff....

[Cololeo]

It’s just another remake of “Reefer Madness”.

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

the idiots who voted for this

Being potheads, they possibly thought that "legalized" weed implied free weed.

[Cololeo]

Nothing has changed.

[Cololeo]

The rot is only in the Denver/Boulder are. Nuke ‘em.

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

It’s just another remake of “Reefer Madness”.

That was a good film. Everyone in Colorado should watch it a couple dozen times.

[TigersEye]

We did. Then we voted to legalize it. lol

[fr_freak]

you will always require money to purchase pot, whether it is legal or not, and it is that need to acquire currency to procure the addictive drug that is a primary driver of marijuana-related crime.

Here is the money quote, people. Just another hysteric who doesn't what the f*** she is talking about.

Now, there may actually be a correlation between legalized pot and crime rates in Colorado, which was one of the first states to legalize it. But the correlation may simply be explained by the type of people who were drawn to Colorado when the law passed - basically all of the lowlifes from the surrounding states who were chronic potheads. It's the same when San Francisco decided to give free money to the homeless. Guess what? They got more homeless! Surprise surprise!

However, this authoress claims to have science! on her side and then says that pot is addictive, demonstrating that she knows exactly jack and is still holding on to the same dumb arguments in favor of the unholy Drug War that were being used before legalization. She fails to consider any other possibility because she is emotionally invested in the illegality of pot. Why? Who knows. Brainwashing? Affiliation with the law enforcement community who have lost money and power due to legalization? The hot hunk in high school wouldn't give her the time of day and he got high once?

[Cololeo]

There are two schools of thought. One says people will obey the government regardless of what they say. They other says people will tell the government to fvck off and do what they want.

I think the second is much more common, and the more government infringes, the more people tell them to fvck off.

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

Long term potheads that I have had the misfortune of running into were all hopelessly addicted and even electro-shock therapy with cattle-prods wouldn’t keep them away from weed. So yes, pot is addictive and in fact anyone who says it’s not is, well, like the potheads above, who deny being addicted.

[alexander_busek]

The pot they get from the pot store (skunk weed) is magnitudes stronger than what used to sell on the street.

And that makes them want to murder people?

Or:

And so you know what's better for them than they, themselves? So the State should step in and regulate their behavior "for their own good."

Just making a simple observation is fine... but what course of action are you insinuating?

Regards,

[CurlyDave]

The problem is not the marijuana.

Living in pot-legal Oregon I have seen this in my little town.

The real problem is the rules about selling marijuana. Because it is illegal at the federal level, banks will not give accounts to mj stores, and all transactions must be in cash. The money quote from the article is "crime follows cash", which is absolutely true.

Think about this. If the stores could take checks and Visa cards, there would be a lot less cash to attract criminals. They could pay the rent with a check instead of a stack of Benjamins, and would not have to worry about being held up on the way.

If we took some other item, auto parts, for example, and made it illegal to sell auto parts for anything other than cash, there would be lots of stories about how auto parts stores lead to increased crime and how we have to eradicate this scourge from our society.

The problem is not what is being sold, but that it is only sold for cash money.

I look at the legal pot industry and have to laugh.

Right now it looks like there is lots of money to be made, but in a few years prices will come down to a little bit over the cost of production, and there will be a huge shakeout.

[Ken H]

"If cash is the only way to acquire marijuana, crime follows cash," Brauchler said

So a business with cash is a target for robbers. Who would have guessed?

"It is easier for there to be black market in a legalized system than there was before.

So it must be easier to have a black market in alcohol since it's been relegalized.

_____________________________________________________________

This idiot is a 'respected prosecutor'?

[alexander_busek]

Indeed it's truly a mystery why widely distributing addictive drugs which rot people's brains would have negative social consequences. I am still scratching my head while pondering this.

Are you referring to alcohol?

Regards,

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

If we took some other item, auto parts,

Yeah, but auto parts don't cause brain damage or turn people into paranoid lunatics. Or maybe they do.