It's a long stretch to argue a decline in crime is attributed to drug use. Spin the numbers however you wish, it doesn't take a mathematician to figure out the truth... If I were in law enforcement, I'd feel pretty slighted that drug users figured out how to take credit for some of my work.
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
#52I worry about what will happen when the next GOP President takes office. Will there be a sudden federal crackdown? If that happens then I think it is inevitable that the US will devolve into a tyranny --just as Plato said, all democracies ultimately do.
I think it's pretty easy to argue that this is a states rights issue and should be left to the states. Nothing they could do would stop the momentum that we have in Colorado. Not to mention that'd you'd be putting tens of thousands of people out of a job if you tried to "crack down" on one of the fastest growing industries in the country (where it's legal). Job creators.
It is also pretty easy to argue that the feds need to just make it legal and then let the states go from there. Just like with alcohol where various states have slightly different rules but, for the most part, you can get booze just about where ever and when ever you want.
Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado
#53[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 p…
Do people who're caught by the nets make further attempts? The reality of jumping off something tall could plausibly make a difference to people.
Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado
#54The linked data shows 19 murders in the first five months of 2013, 11 murders in the same period in 2014. First, this is very noisy data to make any predictions from. (I guess it's a good thing to have so few murders that it's hard to make generalizations.) March 2014 alone had 5 murders compared to three last year. Second, this isn't a 52.9% drop, even if you exclude May, which makes the drop from 17 to 9. It's a 47…
They just worded it wrong, really... It should say it's 52.9% of what it was in 2013, meaning it is a 47.1% drop. But linking to data for 5 months and then only using the 4 you want to use to skew numbers seems pretty ridiculous to me. And then in the same page there's data for drug/narcotics violations which isn't even mentioned because it is going up (21% more) even though there are supposedly plummeting marijuana…
It's just the first thing I honed in on when I was checking the article. I could start talking about significant digits but I don't think it's necessary to really put more work into this.
Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado
#55the graff with the addiction rate vs. drug control spending is misleading. while the addiction rate is constant, the population is growing, meaning the total number of addicted people would be rising. graff graff.
I thought the problem with drugs isn't the addiction but the black market.
The people get addicted anyway, but now the money needed to cure them goes where it can help and not to the mob.
Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado
#56> 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…
Why would DC legalizing pot set up a battle with Congress - does Congress need to sign off on DC legislation?
Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado
#57The linked data shows 19 murders in the first five months of 2013, 11 murders in the same period in 2014. First, this is very noisy data to make any predictions from. (I guess it's a good thing to have so few murders that it's hard to make generalizations.) March 2014 alone had 5 murders compared to three last year. Second, this isn't a 52.9% drop, even if you exclude May, which makes the drop from 17 to 9. It's a 47…
Disturbing the peace is up over 1000% YoY for all months except May.
Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is true. It takes responsibility on the users part and possibly more education on the sellers part. But certainly the same is true with alcohol, caffeine, etc. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/07/01/caf...
> One teaspoon of the powder contains up to 1,600 milligrams of caffeine — about 70 cans of Red Bull. Something is a bit off here.
I suspect the 0 is in err.
Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado
#59> 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…
Why would DC legalizing pot set up a battle with Congress - does Congress need to sign off on DC legislation?
> Why would DC legalizing pot set up a battle with Congress - does Congress need to sign off on DC legislation?
Yes, all DC Council legislation is subject to Congressional review before it becomes law. (Government of the capital district is a Congressional power under Article I of the Constitution.)
Re: Six Months After Legalizing Marijuana, Two Big Things Have Happened in Colorado
#60There was a pretty informative round table on cannabis business hosted on Jason Calacanis' This Week in Startups https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zZ8RgfTFzA&feature=youtu.be...
One useful quote from there is not to get euphoric over revenue figures - first few months "people are not buying marijuana, people are buying freedom". A variety of things, such as novelty effect, natural curiosity and even social currency accumulation (people who live in Colorado/Washington brag to their friends outside of those states) motivate the first purchases, you have to look at longer timeline to properly extrapolate the expected sales.