Posted on 01/09/2019 10:03:03 AM PST by Kaslin
Ten states and Washington, D.C., have now legalized adult use of marijuana.
Supporters of America's long war on drugs said legalization would create disaster. Has it? No.
Colorado and Washington offer the longest points of comparison because weed has been legal in those states now for five years.
More people in Colorado tried marijuana after legalization, but that's not a surprise.
Colorado's crime rate did rise a bit. But many things influence crime rates. Washington state's violent crime rate rose a little but slightly less than the national average.
In California, people I interviewed said legalization made the streets safer. "It's cleaned up the corner," said one woman. Marijuana stores "have a lot of security (and) pay attention to who's on the sidewalk."
Sounds good to me.
But drug warriors are not convinced. Paul Chabot, a former anti-drug policy advisor for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, tells me that legalization has been a disaster.
"Colorado youth have an 85 percent higher marijuana use rate than the rest of the country," he says in my new video on marijuana legalization.
But he is wrong. Federal and state surveys and the New England Journal of Medicine report that teen marijuana use dropped a little in Colorado. Maybe there's something about legal businesses, with the dreary name "dispensaries," that makes weed less sexy to kids.
But there is bad news: The driving death rate increased in Colorado and Washington after legalization. But the data isn't clear -- driving deaths are up even more in some neighboring states like Idaho, where weed is still banned.
Chabot says, "Pot driving fatalities in Colorado are up 151 percent!"
That's true, but that statistic is misleading because traces of marijuana stay in a person's system for a long time. Some of those people may have used marijuana weeks before.
A more stringent measure that may indicate whether someone was actually high at the time of an accident suggests an increase of 84 percent.
That's terrible, but the numbers of accidents are so small -- 35 in all of Colorado in 2017, up from 19 in 2014 -- it's hard to draw conclusions. That deserves more study.
If anti-drug warriors like Chabot want to look seriously at the statistics, they should also include the harm done by drug prohibition itself.
It's nearly impossible to overdose on pot. But banning marijuana drives sales into the black market, where criminals do the selling. And criminals are more likely to settle their disagreements with guns.
They don't perform the reliable quality controls that legal drug sellers must do to please their customers.
On the black market, customers take their chances. Then, when things go wrong, anti-drug voices cry out: "See? Drug markets are inherently unsafe!"
Banning drugs doesn't stop teens or adults from using them. Anyone who wants the stuff knows how to get it. One survey found that teens said it's easier to buy weed than alcohol. Alcohol is rarely sold in schools, but banning marijuana creates fat profits that inspire dealers to recruit students to sell to their peers.
Then there are the billions of dollars spent by law enforcement -- $900 per second. (That's just the federal cost. Total spending is much higher.) And the million people arrested yearly for drug violations.
I suggest to Chabot that drug prohibition has worked out as badly as alcohol prohibition did nearly 100 years ago.
"Just because something doesn't work doesn't mean that we end it," he replies. "Doesn't mean we quit."
I say failure sometimes does mean you should quit, because you're doing more harm than good.
"No, because then we give up, and that's not American," Chabot says.
Well, today, two-thirds of Americans say marijuana should be legal. One state at a time, with New York and New Jersey about to join the list, Americans are giving up on marijuana prohibition.
Good. Adults should have the right to make their own decisions about what to put in their own bodies.
POTUS is in favor of legalizing Marijuana?
Legalizing psychotropic drugs is evil.
We are back to the “Since everyone is doing it anyway, lets make it legal” copout.
If states want to legalize psychotropic drugs, it is their business.
I remain steadfastly against the practice, and, yes, I do consider it evil: No good can possibly arise FRom the legalization of psychotropic drugs.
The good would be the same as we achieved by legalizing the drug alcohol: taking profits away from organized crime.
Oh? Not being up to speed on this psychotropic drug stuff and the criminal element involved in states that have legalized marijuana, I asked the trusty internet “Does legalizing marijuana reduce crime?”
This article popped up straight away: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/foreign-cartels-embrace-home-grown-marijuana-pot-legal-states-n875666.
In part, NBC reported in May, 2018 that “Federal officials allege that legal recreational marijuana states like California, Colorado and Washington, where enforcement of growing regulations is hit-or-miss, have been providing cover for transnational criminal organizations willing to invest big money to buy or rent property to achieve even bigger returns.”
Then, the Reason Foundation’s study, released in Sep. 2018 (https://reason.org/wp-content/uploads/does-legalizing-marijuana-reduce-crime.pdf) appeared:
“SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
“The evidence presented in this brief suggests that legalization of marijuana for medical or recreational use results in:
“1. Patients substituting marijuana for other drugs, including opiates.
“2. Marijuana consumers substituting legitimate marijuana for illicit marijuana.
“3. A significant reduction in crimes associated with marijuana production, distribution,sale and possession.
“4. Reductions in other crimes, including some property and violent crimes.”
Rather than list each pro or anti-marijuana legalization article (ALL of which seemed to have a bias, BTW) I’ll just remark that they seem to be evenly split: pro articles touted the virtue of legalization while anti articles touted the dangers of legalization.
IMHO it boils down to a personal opinion. So, out discussion is, truly, over. I will not respond to any further pings on this issue because we have no common ground.
You are for legalization, and I am against it.
The pig is annoyed – let us drop the issue!
“Federal officials allege that legal recreational marijuana states like California, Colorado and Washington, where enforcement of growing regulations is hit-or-miss, have been providing cover for transnational criminal organizations willing to invest big money to buy or rent property to achieve even bigger returns.”
No evidence there that cartels have replaced the income lost to legal sales - they've simply responded by getting their reduced income through modified means. And note that the article says their customers are in the nonlegalizing states.
I will not respond to any further pings on this issue
Please understand if this fails to distress me. I will continue to respond to any further faulty logic or facts.
Many family friends are long time tobacco growers— from the days when you grew a crop of quality and presented it at market in lots that were bid on by the Big Baccy US cos— the Dukes (American Tobacco, became BRit American/BAT),RJ Reynolds, Phillip Morris/now Altria). Told us all along how they no longer presented their crop for any to buy, and the big guys got together to reduce the price they paid unless offered on exclusive growing contract. Now there are no auction markets with many buyers. The ones that grow any are on a renewed contract for a fixed price of projected crop. So, they get the amount which will be paid, plant the crop (and take out crop insurance right away) and then, produce. If they don’t produce the amount contracted they owe back a portion of the advanced contract money from the company.
In this way— all the growers are controlled. The companies would immediately begin this with the supposedly gonna make a million pot growers— consolidate their farms and reduce paid prices.... and run them out of business.
One further example: RJR imports.. imports burley tobacco grown in Zimbabwe. Other facts: biggest tobacco production in the world- China, then India followed by Brazil, and then the US. The toid world smokes..a lot, and pollutes a lot.
The one-two punch of tobacco lawsuits and govt. regulation has in the US caused tobacco biz to look to replace those huge profits.... and, voila! It’s legalized pot in the US.
Correct— the same way they, all of the sudden CLAIMED their undying affection for the Dalai Lama— who was first brought to light in re: Chi-com’s destruction of Nepal and the creation of a Chi-com, fake Dalai Lama. This by multiple writings of William F. Buckley (they were friends).
Now it’s hip for Leftists to be “with it” with the Dalai! What a joke (and, as usual zero original thought)
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