Posted on 09/15/2019 11:51:37 AM PDT by NobleFree
New research shows crime rates dropped substantially in areas with marijuana dispensaries, running counter to fears that pot shops drum up crime.
The study, published this month in the journal of Regional Science and Urban Economics, analyzed crime data from Denver between January 2013 and December 2016. Colorado, which legalized medical marijuana nearly two decades ago, kicked off sales of recreational pot in 2014.
”The results imply that an additional dispensary in a neighborhood leads to a reduction of 17 crimes per month per 10,000 residents, which corresponds to roughly a 19 percent decline relative to the average crime rate over the sample period,” the study states.
While those findings are highly localized, Illinois State University criminology professor Ralph Weisheit said the results could be “magnified in Illinois.” That’s because the state’s 610-page pot law prioritizes criminal justice and social equity and encourages the hiring of people from “economically-impoverished neighborhoods,” Weisheit said.
“More than any other state, the law is loaded with sections that encourage economic development and employment in areas that have high levels of poverty and a high level of previous marijuana arrests,” he added.
In Denver, researchers found the sharpest decrease in nonviolent crimes, like criminal trespassing, criminal mischief, simple assault and public-order crimes. The study also found a reduction in violent crime that was driven by a drop in aggravated assault, though those findings weren’t statistically significant.
Crime dropping locally appears to be consistent with an increased police or private security presence in or around pot shops. According to David Mok-Lamme, one of the study’s co-authors, private guards tasked with protecting dispensaries’ cash and product might have a “positive impact on crime rates” — but there’s not enough available data to know for sure.
Since the research shows that crime actually decreases “in a meaningful way,” Mok-Lamme said he hopes the study “causes people to rethink those thoughts they may have about where dispensaries choose to open.”
Westchester police chief Steven Stelter, president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, said he’s concerned about an overall rise in crime after recreational pot is legalized but doesn’t know whether crime rates will be affected specifically around dispensaries.
“It depends where they put these dispensaries” and whether they attract visitors from elsewhere, Stelter said.
His main concerns include black market cannabis flooding into Illinois as well as increases in traffic crashes and marijuana use among children.
“We’re just gonna have to sit around and wait — and we’ll be able to say I told you so in a few years,” he said.
In Illinois, a growing number of municipalities are moving to ban sales of recreational pot. Naperville’s City Council voted earlier this month to do just that. Weisheit said he isn’t surprised.
“That’s just being cautious,” he said. “But I’m guessing that the mindset will gradually change over time. First of all, as money rolls in. And secondly, as they see that it’s not turned out to be the series of terrible events that they thought might happen with legalization.”
Still, another study, conducted between 2012 and 2015 and published earlier this year in the Justice Quarterly journal, found that crime rates around Denver pot shops initially increased when recreational marijuana was legalized, but it then declined. And the correlation between crime and the shops’ presence weakened significantly over time.
Lorine Hughes, a University of Colorado Denver professor who co-authored the study, said the slightly conflicting results of the studies were likely attributable to their differing methodologies. While Mok-Lamme’s study analyzed individual census tracts, Hughes said her research focused on smaller areas. Her study also looked at a shorter period of time after recreational pot was legalized. She said because crime was very low to begin with in some areas she analyzed, it’s difficult to jump to too many conclusions.
She also said her results likely won’t translate to other cities: “You can’t say because this is what we found in Denver, this is what you’re going to find in Chicago.”
Bruce Barcott, senior editor of the pot news website Leafly, which is owned by a major investor in the pot industry, said his review of other studies, by and large, shows that “crime rates in communities where cannabis stores have opened have been either unaffected or the crime rate generally decreases.”
He said marijuana legalization “frees up cops to do their job.”
“Any time that you can free up police resources from an activity that really is not a crime and is no longer a crime, that’s going to positively affect the police’s ability to do their job across all aspects,” he said.
I didn't - I left the quotation mark in.
"Any fatality above zero is one fatality too many" is as true of alcohol as of pot.
“Which, if true, proves what?”
““Colorado transportation and public safety officials, however, say the rising number of pot-related traffic fatalities cannot be definitively linked to legalized marijuana.”
“I didn’t - I left the quotation mark in. “
LOL! Unless you cite another source, postings in quotes infers the quote was made by the targeted poster.
No apology for jumping the shark on my original post?
Sorry, misread that part when they wee saying only near pot sales facilities.
rwood
“If that’s the solution for those people, it’s the solution for pot users - not a ban on that which they misused. “
Nevermind. You favor government banning meth.
https://www.codot.gov/library/traffic/safety-crash-data/fatal-crash-data-city-county This is a source but I did not find the other page. Cell phones, drugs, inexperienced drivers are causing more accidents. The radio has a piece on more accidents also.
Not if it's also italicized, troll.
No apology for trolling me?
Just like banks and casinos. An attractive nuisance.
Wonder how the black market is doing.
Something really bothers me about these pot houses. Like for every legal one, there's an illegal one.....two doors away.
And most liquor stores.
What to do with all the cash is a problem worth having...better than nobody shops at your business
Eventually marijuana stores will get regular banking access
And insurance and title
Title is the big one for folks wanting to own their property whether a grow house or farm or warehouse or green house or stand alone store etc
And insurance on equipment..contents as they say
SWIM got a farm mortgage approved in legal Michigan for a land and home greenhouse property with all the state pot cops paperwork for medical....before Michigan went recreational
At the last minute the bank said we can’t get title because Chicago Land and Title the nations largest title company won’t write title for marijuana properties regardless if legal paperwork in tow or not
And as Chicago Land and Title goes so goes the industry
So SWIM paid cash for the farm and home
But in Michigan the insurance company did insure after inspecting the property
SWIM asked a friend in the Santa Barbara area who comes from the land of dikes and legal pot and tulips how they deal with all this...he runs America’s largest by far greenhouse pot farm that supplies dispensaries everywhere....120-240 acres under roof....greenhouses and total climate control and does light deprivation and pulls continuous harvests year round
He banks with a Dutch bank and always has....and said Dutch bank has a corresponding department under Deutsch Bank in Los Angeles
I’m not surprised at all!
Here in Florida, there have been zero issues with crime in and around our medical cannabis dispensaries!
Probably the licensed open carry security people they all keep on site all day every day!
And a good bullshitter is good for very little!
Been a medical cannabis user since 2015 & my life has been immensely improved for doing so!
https://www.carnivorecast.com/podcast/brett
“And a good bullshitter is good for very little!”
Which of my statements do you disagree with?
The good gun owner is an asset to society.
The good Stoner is a debit to society.
“Wonder how the black market is doing. “
Selling at lower prices than the pot shops.
The latter, of course. I was mentally ill to the point I was unemployable.
Since I began using cannabis in 2015 every aspect of my life has immensely improved. I have been gainfully employed for over a year now. Thriving as a daily medical cannabis user. On zero pharma meds after taking their poison as prescribed for over 20 years.
What type of job do you have that let’s you work while stoned?
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