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By October 2014, Colorado officials discovered that thousands of dollars had been withdrawn from ATMs located in the state’s marijuana shops using EBT cards since the legalization of pot for recreational use.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!
Everyone is deceived by Big Marijuana just like they were by Big Tobacco. They have people believing it is healthy for you and “medicinal,” when in reality it causes permanent brain damage, psychosis and other mental illness, lung cancer, COPD and other lung diseases. People should recognize that the hacking cough of a pot user sounds just like the one of tobacco smokers.
On another level, there is nothing that our enemies like China would like to see than our country weakened by drugs physically and mentally.
“Washington state became a homeless camp shortly after legalization.”
You mean nothing changed?
Meaningless stats.
That’s like a 17-year-old who smokes a pack of cigarettes per day claiming that he’s just fine, and getting stronger.
All described in the article was predicted by level headed leaders and writers before the legalization took place. My family will tell you I spoke to this very result whenever the topic arose.
Now project the same for the nation as a whole. Russia or China would roll in and conquer without a whimper.
In other news, legalizing burglary would make that crime statistic plummet!!!
Never mind 8 years of Obama, and counterproductive efforts by lib WA government to create “affordable housing.” Oregon and California, too.
Your use of brightly colored correction marks and grading could trigger someone.../s
Has the traffic death toll in Colorado changed since legalization?
Are potheads in CO sitting at stop signs waiting for them to turn green?
Or do those who smoked pot for thirty years still claim to not be addicted?
Antonito.
Can we now say....WE TOLD YOU SO!?
Leads with two sensational stories that happened 3+ years ago and over a year apart. The voice of reason!
Seemingly normal people can do insane things even while sober. People do insane acts of violence daily while under influence of alcohol and legal pills. At a far higher rate than cannabis users. Most of the school shooters were under legal drugs. Yet these substances are still legal because, by far, most people consuming them are not violent.
The rate of increased violent crime is due to the synthetic opiod epidemic hitting all inner cities and gangs rising up from their profits. These are chinese synthetic drugs far cheaper than pot and dozens of times stronger than heroin. This issue has nothing to do with legalized pot.
https://www.denverpost.com/2016/03/12/why-pueblo-has-the-highest-per-capita-homicide-rate-in-colorado/
Also, the traffic studies cited in this article are not correctly analyzing the data. Cannabis metabolite found in the blood from using it weeks ago does not indicate impairment now. Calling “cannabis related” is not science.
“CDOT spokesman Sam Cole said the department considers the number of deaths in which the driver was marijuana-impaired under state law to be the most reliable indicator of its impact on the highways.
By that measure, marijuana-related deaths are clearly down.”
Someone should post scans showing the brain damage in those who have smoked dope regularly. Looks a lot like the NFL players that have permanent brain damage from concussions.
You know there has been brain damage when you’re talking to a doper when they have the typical 3 second delay while they are trying to process what you said to them and how they should respond.
Yeah right.
Dealers are still dealing, just to marijuana to minors and harder drugs to adults. My EMT buddies tell me that there is a huge uptick in meth.
Legalized marijuana. One of the many dangerously insane policies of our time.
In Washington State, the Opioid Death Rate is 9.4.
In Washington State, the Homeless Rate is 290
In New Hampshire, the Opioid Death Rate is 35.8.
In New Hampshire, the Homeless Rare is 109
The only solution to this is public execution of drug dealers.
THC is THC. Selective breeding has produced plants that are heavy THC producers. Concentrates like hash oil were available in the 60’s and 70’s, too, though not available as easily. Abuse isn’t a good thing. Look for those abusing shatter to be a problem, years down the road.
Yup. Making weed legal opens the door for illegal dealers to hide in plain sight much easier.
But what the heck, a stoned population is an easily controlled population.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.