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Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

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Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#21

Post by danielweber »

binarymax wrote: post #6

The second point seems like it is a stretch. Of course, crime rate of illegal marijuana dropped when it was legalized. What I'd really like to see if related crime has dropped or increased - such as DUI, Theft, Assault, etc. --Edit-- Thanks all for pointing out the piece I skimmed over :) ...However I am still very curious to smaller offenses and misdemeanors. It will be years before we see good statistics, but those…

http://www.denvergov.org/Portals/720/documents/statistics/20...

Crimes against persons: up about 24%

Crimes against property: down about 10%

Crimes against society: up about 23% which includes narcotics crimes up by 21%

All other crimes: up over 150%

No one should be trying to read data out of this noise, but if you are, it's not looking good for any legalization argument.

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#22

Post by jws »

pavanky wrote: post #10
binarymax wrote: post #6

The second point seems like it is a stretch. Of course, crime rate of illegal marijuana dropped when it was legalized. What I'd really like to see if related crime has dropped or increased - such as DUI, Theft, Assault, etc. --Edit-- Thanks all for pointing out the piece I skimmed over :) ...However I am still very curious to smaller offenses and misdemeanors. It will be years before we see good statistics, but those…

> According to government data, the Denver city- and county-wide murder rate has dropped 52.9% since recreational marijuana use was legalized in January. This is compared to the same period last year, a time frame encompassing Jan. 1 through April 30. This was the second paragraph of the crime section.

That statistic is cherry picked from a list of 36 at http://www.denvergov.org/Portals/720/documents/statistics/20... and has a relatively low sample size.

If you can't find a statistic to cherry pick for your argument in a list of 36 you have a very bad argument.

• Arson has doubled since legalization! Bunch of flaming stoners.

• Embezzlement is down 88%! Who knew this was all society needed to fortify people's fiduciary responsibilities.

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#23

Post by lotsofmangos »

danielweber wrote: post #17
steveklabnik wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> According to government data, the Denver city- and > county-wide murder rate has dropped 52.9% since recreational > marijuana use was legalized in January. This is compared > to the same period last year, a time frame encompassing Jan. 1 > through April 30.

Their math is wrong. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7977655

Reducing the 52% drop to a 47% drop doesn't change the point much.

edit - though I agree that the data isn't good enough to really support any conclusions yet. That would take about ten years and several different cities.

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#24

Post by tolas »

rwl wrote: post #8

This sounds like a great outcome, and I support legalization for basically these reasons. More revenue for state governments, less violence, less law-enforcement time wasted on drug offences, and less crowding of prisons with non-violent drug offenders are all good things. But surely there have been downsides, too, even if they're not the ones that fear-mongerers predicted. Can anyone in Colorado speak to what those…

It's hard to decide which dispensary to go to?

But seriously, I live and work in Downtown Denver and have seen no change for the worse, and frankly haven't heard any evidence that any of the assumed negative effects (ie: increase usage among teens and youth) have happened. Denver is one happy (and healthy) city.

Legalization is a no brainer that is simply being held up nationwide due to outdated moral inertia.

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#25

Post by chucknelson »

[deleted] wrote: post #13

[deleted]

You could attribute that to most things we observe as a society. Let us all reflect on the solitary anecdotes that fuel many technology arguments, especially iOS vs Android in recent years.

"All of my friends says iOS sucks and have moved to Android!" "That can't be, all of my friends hated their Galaxy phones and moved to iPhone!"

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#26

Post by chipgap98 »

> This November, it's all but certain that D.C. will vote on a marijuana ballot measure and even pass it, setting up a battle with Congress to legalize.

It will be interesting to see what happens with this vote. The marijuana debate is in a completely different place than it was 16 years ago when Congress blocked the counting of the votes for medical marijuana in D.C., but I could still see them interfering with the vote again.

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#27

Post by fidotron »

[deleted] wrote: post #13

[deleted]

Of course, but the same is true for alcohol, and prohibition doesn't exactly seem to work there.

In all cases encouraging individual responsibility and providing frameworks to help people get their shit together when things do go bad seem to be more viable in the long run.

This is related to why I find things such as the anti-suicide nets on the Golden Gate Bridge slightly perverse. You really need to be asking why people want to do it rather than just taking the means away.

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#28

Post by danielweber »

lotsofmangos wrote: post #23
danielweber wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their math is wrong. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7977655

Reducing the 52% drop to a 47% drop doesn't change the point much. edit - though I agree that the data isn't good enough to really support any conclusions yet. That would take about ten years and several different cities.

Besides a failure to understand which number is which is a percentage change, the data they link to shows a 24% increase in crimes against people.

I don't know why anyone thought this was a good enough article to upvote. Someone out there is working on a good article about the effects of legalization on crime rates. This isn't it.

Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado

#30

Post by [deleted] »

otoburb wrote: post #20
[deleted] wrote: post #13

[deleted]

>Drugs are a person by person issue. Now you might say, yeah, if it wasn't x substance, it'd be y. Alcohol addiction comes to mind as another substitute that is depressing to watch or be the victim of. Does anybody know if marijuana side effects tend to induce violence or impaired decision making as compared to alcohol?

[deleted]
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