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.
Those two categories plus a similar growth buried in "All Other Offenses" accounts for essentially all of the growth in reported crimes.
There is probably a story there somewhere.