Posted on 11/30/2018 2:21:41 PM PST by fwdude
On January 1, 2014, Colorado legalized the medical and recreational use of Marijuana. They claimed that it would add millions of dollars to the state’s revenue via state taxes which includes a 2.9% sales tax, 10% special sales tax and 15% excise tax, meaning the state would collect $27.90 for every $100 of recreational marijuana sold in the Rocky Mountain state.
In April 2014, 19 year old foreign exchange student Levy Thamba plunged off a hotel balcony and died after eating legally purchased marijuana laced cookies. After eating just one cookie, Thamba became agitated and ran out onto the balcony and over the edge, falling to his death. The pot-laced cookies were legally purchased by a 21-year-old present at the gathering.
In September 2015, 47-year-old Richard Kirk purchased Pre 98 Bubba Kush Pre-Roll joint and Karma Kandy Orange Ginger, a marijuana laced candy. Shortly after eating the pot laced candy, Kristine Kirk, 44, called 9-1-1 to report that her husband was hallucinating and frightening her and their three children. During her call, she told the police dispatcher that her husband had asked her to get the gun from their safe and shoot him. When she refused, she told the dispatcher that he was retrieving the gun. Twelve minutes into the emergency call, the dispatcher heard a gunshot over the phone and then the line went dead.
When police finally arrived at the house, Kristine was dead from a gunshot to the head and Richard was ranting and rambling to himself. In his ramblings, he admitted to killing his wife. Police said that it appeared to them that Richard was definitely suffering the effects of some controlled substance and/or prescription drugs.
By October 2015, the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area just released their annual report which reveals the impact of legal marijuana use. Among the alarming report, marijuana related traffic deaths have increased by 32%. Not all of those that lost their lives were the users of marijuana. They were the innocent victims of someone else who was driving while under the effects of marijuana.
They also reported significant increases in emergency room and hospital visits linked to marijuana use. Additionally, they reported that school expulsions have increased by 40% with the majority of them being related to marijuana.
By October 2014, Colorado officials discovered that thousands of dollars had been withdrawn from ATMs located in the state’s marijuana shops using EBT cards since the legalization of pot for recreational use. These withdrawals were being made illegally as a federal law was passed the same year as the pot was legalized in Colorado, 2012, prohibiting the use of EBT cards at ATMs in pot shops. It’s also illegal to use EBT cards to make withdrawals in liquor stores and casinos, but Watchdog.org reports that hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars are being illegally withdrawn at these locations.
After just three years of legalize marijuana, the nice resort and artsy town of Durango had been transformed into something ugly. Along with attracting arts and craft makers and buyers, the city had become a mecca to pot users. The city had seen a huge increase in homeless people, panhandlers, transients and drug addicts.
With the transforming, city officials became alarmed when residents started finding used needles just lying in the streets and on the sidewalks.
Caleb Preston, a local business owner said he regularly has to kick vagrants from sitting in the doorway to his store. With the influx of pot users, the city has also seen an increase in violence and crime. Preston commented:
Just this year there has been a major influx of people between 20 to 30 who are just hanging out on the streets. The problem is while many are pretty mellow, there are many more who are violent.
In a recent episode of Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson, it was revealed:
In 2016, there was a spike in the state’s homeless population. And houses have become increasingly unaffordable. A typical Denver home is in the $400,000 dollar range. But the biggest surprise is what’s happened to the black market.It turns out for all the predictions and hope that legalizing marijuana in Colorado would eliminate the black market here—that hasn’t turned out to be the case. In fact, officials in law enforcement and communities tell us they’re having to grapple with a whole new set of problems and costs…
So now what you see is people are taking over these houses, growing a large amount of marijuana. Now it turns into the black market. They ship it out of state and other states are paying large amount of money for this marijuana. So, everything that we were kind of told in re-gards to legalization, that we would get rid of the black market, law enforcement wouldn’t be involved in, it hasn’t panned out. And it’s just not within the city of Colorado Springs. It’s throughout the whole state of Colorado…
There’s also been a spike in other crime like robbery and car theft. In 2016, Colorado’s increase in crime rate was eleven times more than the average 30 biggest U.S. cities. Homicides— up almost 10%.
John Suthers, Mayor of Colorado Springs added:
That’s another irony of this whole thing because the legalization proponents said, ‘oh, you know the cops are spending way too much time on, on this marijuana, they’re ticketing guys in the park and stuff like that. Let’s, let’s stop that.’ Well, guess what, we’re spending an awful lot more time enforcing the marijuana laws than we did when it was all illegal…’The industry always stereotypes me as kind of a drug war dinosaur. You know, I’ve been dealing with this drug problem for years as a prosecutor and I’m “just in a different centu-ry.” You know, that’s fair. Everybody can analyze that. But I will tell you, I’m backed up on the size and scope of the black market that they said wouldn’t exist and now exists in greater a na-ture and extent than they talked about. We have the highest rate of adolescent marijuana use in the country. We’re not fixing our roads. Our school system hasn’t been bailed out by marijuana money.
It seems the only ones who are profiting by four years of legalization are the legal growers and sellers along with the black-market growers and sellers. The promises of helping the schools, fixing the roads and reducing crime and time spent by law enforcement have all been broken. Innocent people are dying. Traffic accidents and emergency room visits have also increased.
But liberals don’t care!
Of course you completely overlook the effect of easily available drugs increasing use and users. Spreading the misery does not reduce the incidence in a given location. It takes up all available space.
Most social effects have more than one cause, I’ll agree. Certainly, there have been historic situations where availability dramatically accelerated usage—as in the opium usage of 19th century China.
But drugs, particularly MJ, are plentiful enough around the US that no one is really deprived. Inconvenienced, perhaps, but not cut off. We are over that threshold.
I don’t think that the recruitment effect is significant given the current availability.
I think you meant:
I won't give you a hard time, but whoever wrote this should not write for a living.
There are so many things wrong with his writing skills, even a fifth-grader could do better!
“Anyone who would eat an edible is an idiot. You have no idea how much product is in that edible. One toke is all it takes for me and that was back in the 70’s.”
When it was illegal, you had no idea.
Now all legal edibles and even prepackaged joints indicate the THC, CBD and CBN content. In some states, they are even required to test for pesticides and fertilizer residue.
With legalization, people can know what they are taking and avoid all those issues.
“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
—-Robert A. Heinlein
“But now a driver in the next lane can toke down some legal weed and get behind the wheel, and there is no quick and effective way to do a roadside test for that.”
Why not? If such a driver were impaired, that should be easy to determine.
They reap what the sow.
“...they are draining off their brain cells with the incredibly potent cannabis products available...”
I believe that sums up the anti-legalizers’ argument to a T.
BTW, howcum those who are vehemently anti-tobacco say little about ingesting & holding marijuana smoke in the lungs?
“and spending their welfare for dope”
I’ve never seen nor heard of anyone getting cash welfare payments. Who gets those, and how do they qualify?
sillycokclusion from you. drug problems are bad all over, obama and previous leaders made sure of it.so what if one drug worse in one state than another its worse everywhere in recent decade.
I know a lot of folks will disagree with me but I’m becoming more and more convinced that the increasing incidence of autism is linked to more young women smoking pot, even while pregnant. And the pot has way more THC than it used to.
I think it’s worth looking into but it won’t be popular. In fact, there could be more resistance to making this connection than there was to cigarettes and cancer back in the 60’s. People get hooked on nicotine but it doesn’t make them nuts.
“sillycokclusion from you. drug problems are bad all over, obama and previous leaders made sure of it.so what if one drug worse in one state than another its worse everywhere in recent decade.”
Weak people get themselves addicted to drugs and become Junkies.
It is their choice, and no one else is to blame.
Addiction is just a bad choice by dumb people.
11/3/2005
Coloradans have no commonsense. Within one year we reelected a financially incompetent, liberal Ken Salazar, then raised our own taxes and legalized marijuana. What is wrong with my neighbors? Well, they want to smoke pot and pay more taxes.
One problem explains the other. Drug abuse is a large cause of liberal thinking. This is proven historically as we look at the ‘60s and ‘70s. Drug abuse and modern liberalism are synonymous. Person becomes rebel. Rebel smokes pot. Pot affects mind, causing liberal thinking. Liberals raise taxes. Its simple!
Fortunately state and federal law will ensure that nothing in Denver will change (for now.) If you are caught in possession of marijuana, you will still pay a fine. However, I think a lot of Mile High, brain-dead potheads believe that because Initiative 100 has passed, they now have a legal right to possess an ounce of marijuana. This will initially lead to a surge in reported offenses. Furthermore, the people of Denver have made a bold public statement: “We want to do an illegal and debilitating drug.” This is a huge internationally observable advertisement. It will attract the attention of drug runners who’s vision will now become fixed on this region. We will therefore see a consistent rise in statistics related to criminal, drug activity; not to mention what will happen to the spirituality of the city…
One of the arguments is that legalizing pot will lessen domestic violence. Apparently potheads are pacifists. In the War Against Terror President Bush has said, “A free nation is a peaceful nation.” Liberals have now in turn said, “A society that is blotto is a society that is peaceful.” But commonsense asks, “When has marijuana ever made a person a better person, a society a better society?” And what happens when a drug deal goes wrong? Are druggies commonly known as emotionally, mentally, or physically stable people?
The hippies will argue, “What right does the federal government have to tell me what I can and can’t do personally?” The Declaration of Independence gives the Union the right to establish principles and powers of government which are most likely to first affect safety, and secondly happiness. Marijuana is not safe for anybody. Its unsafe in a manner of physical and mental health. Its unsafe for a society in the way of drug trafficking and violence.
In the end, there is no reasoning with a drug addict. Oral argument and facts will not convince them to clean up. Only traumatic experience can get through to them; sometimes only too late. Do you see what we have done? We have perpetuated the tragedy of drug abuse. We have chosen to believe a lie instead of commonsense. The lines of social morality and active conservative values have been pushed back yet one more level. You have made my job just a little bit harder.
(end commentary)
I left Denver for good in 2017.
Because they don't get high from tobacco.
I do not really care either way. Both vices impair health over the long-term. Users know that and deserve no real sympathy. Neither substance should be illegal - it is not worth the cost of enforcement.
I just do not want to be around the smoke or vapors.
With legal weed, Colorado is healthier, more educated, less crime ridden and has a better economy than most other states.
“Both vices impair health over the long-term.”
—
Sometimes they do,sometimes they don’t.
As far as tobacco is concerned I’m living proof.
.
Largely because drunk driving is a national mexican sport, along with raping teenagers, but that's another topic entirely.
Rocky Mountain High
High in Colorado...
John Denver was the Amazing Kreskin.
There is no standard by which to gauge the amount of THC. It’s almost a guess.
Nice to see these threads can still bring out the neo-prohibitionists in droves.
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