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By October 2014, Colorado officials discovered that thousands of dollars had been withdrawn from ATMs located in the state’s marijuana shops using EBT cards since the legalization of pot for recreational use.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!
PET scans of damage in brain due to marijuana use:
https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/amen-research-marijuana-affects-blood-flow-brain/
Brians scans indicating connection between marijuana use and schizophrenia:
https://patch.com/illinois/evanston/link-between-schizophrenia-marijuana-cannabis-use
Worked in Asia.
Whoever is the subjective use of the pronoun, which is the case in the corrected sentence. Whomever is the objective use of the pronoun, i.e. the boot was given to whomever couldn’t write a proper sentence.
I’ll take a poll to see if whomever givsashitt.
And the results are... nope, whomever don’t givashitt.
...West Virginia and Ohio have far greater drug problems than Colorado...
Marijuana is figuring into more fatal crashes in Colorado overall. In 2013, drivers tested positive for the drug in about 10 percent of all fatal crashes. By 2016, it was 20 percent.
More drivers are testing positive for marijuana and nothing else. Of the drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2014 who tested positive for cannabinoids, more than 52 percent had no alcohol in their system. By 2016, it had grown to 69 percent.
The average age of drivers in deadly crashes in 2015 who tested positive for marijuana was nearly 35, with a quarter of them over 40.
In 2016, of the 115 drivers in fatal wrecks who tested positive for marijuana use, 71 were found to have Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, in their blood, indicating use within hours, according to state data. Of those, 63 percent were over 5 nanograms per milliliter, the state’s limit for driving.
I support the idea that the States should be allowed to “experiment”. The problem is that with leftists, no amount of bad outcomes will persuade them to reverse course on a policy. Look at welfare. It’s damned hard to push the camel away when he’s got his nose under the tent.
Index study for #1: PET scan studies
https://www.j-alz.com/content/new-study-shows-marijuana-users-have-low-blood-flow-brain
No, it has not.
Neither has the crime rate changed significantly, in spite of the appalling stories that get selection for publication.
One thing that has changed is that you cannot find large warehouse buildings anywhere in south Denver right now. And industrial electricians are doing a very profitable business wiring up grow lights and security systems. But the smart ones get cash up front. Growers have a very bad reputation for slow and non-payments.
There are a ridiculous number of pot shops in every small town. I expect the market is becoming saturated and many of those places will be gone in a couple of years. The easy money has already been taken.
Tax revenues to the State Government have been somewhat disappointing too. There has been a lot of money available, but every organization in the State has lined up to take a piece and the demand exceeds the supply.
As for the customers, they are draining off their brain cells with the incredibly potent cannabis products available and no doubt will show long-term deterioration analogous to that of alcoholics. That problem is self-limiting. "Think of it as evolution in action".
“West Virginia and Ohio have far greater drug problems than Colorado.”
After visiting a great deal of this nation, and living in both the east and the west, I would suggest that living east of “western states” is depressing and more conducive to drug abuse.
But that is just my unscientific bias.
And what are the statistics in West Virginia on Junkies popping pain pills in West Virginia and then getting behind the wheel and killing someone?
Do those deaths count?
Or do you just want to look at the numbers of West Virginia Junkies that overdose?
Either way, Colorado is much safer with a higher life expectancy than West Virginia.
I have not seen even a single homeless camp in my part of the state, although I heard there was one tent in a city park (that was removed). The homeless must be flocking to the Puget Sound area for something other than marijuana — it is legal here, too.
Weak people and weak cultures lead to drug addiction.
My daughter smoked some in DC (legal) and told me she forgot how to swallow. Now that is stoned.
Murphy in NJ is about to make it legal, can’t wait for all that tax money we’ll be rolling around in! Maybe it can pay for free college...wait, how can you pay for something if it’s free?
/liberal thinking
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.
I recently saw an article about the decrease in the life span of Americans because of suicides rate increases and drug overdoses.
I think that marijuana use is a factor, plus the increase in disease related deaths, polio like illnesses, untreatable TB, HIV, and other diseases being brought into the USA by illegal immigrants and lax policies.
“Whoever wrote the article” is the correct uusage. “Whoever” is the subject of the clause, so you use the nominative case.
Keep posting. I have never seen this many neonates born with this in their umbilical cord at levels exceeding adult ranges.
Just wait about 5 yeas, when massive numbers of school children who were exposed to it during pregnancy, go to school.
But hey, we are ending the war on drugs and it’s working great.
All those taxpayer dollars we saved on prisoners with drug charges will come in handy.
I am wondering when the lawsuits will begin. Re the tobacco lawsuits of a few years ago.
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