Pot Shop Crime

 Wall Street Journal: June 6, 2022 "Heavy marijuana use among youths is leading to more addiction and antisocial behavior."

Man shot and killed outside a marijuana dispensary in East Bakersfield.

"In one year, Portland-area cannabis shops reported more than half a million dollars stolen."

"This might be surprising to most people, but the reality is the drug that has been involved in the transaction where lives have been lost, almost invariably turns out to be marijuana."

'Is that dude really dead?' Three teens murder man over marijuana deal, cops say

“They side-stepped the cash register and headed straight for the top-shelf bud.” Thieves steal $15,000 worth of marijuana in seconds from Oklahoma shop

"A huge surge in dispensary burglaries"

"Using law enforcement to reduce medical marijuana dispensaries in California appears to have reduced crime in residential areas near to...these locations."

Marijuana will increase crime in our neighborhoods

• Market Watch reported, “crime has increased in many of the cities where recreational marijuana is legal.”

• Reason Foundation found, “Some studies have found a relationship between heavy marijuana consumption by adolescents and subsequent violent behavior.”

• "Marijuana trafficking is linked to a variety of crimes, from assault and murder to money laundering and smuggling. Legalization of marijuana would increase demand for the drug and almost certainly exacerbate drug-related crime, as well as cause a myriad of unintended but predictable consequences,” the Heritage Foundation found.

• “Prosecutors, judges, police officers, detectives, parole or probation officers, and even defense attorneys know that the vast majority of defendants arrested for violent crimes test positive for illegal drugs, including marijuana.”

• The DEA’s National Drug Threat Assessment said, “The conversion of residential properties into marijuana greenhouses presents significant risks to homeowners, neighbors, utility companies, and first responders.” It also said, “Marijuana generates millions of dollars that furthers the scope of [the drug trafficking organizations’] criminal activity throughout the United States.”

• “States with some of the largest legal markets are also dealing with rampant illegal production — and the problem is getting worse,” Politico reported.

• The Brookings Institution found, “U.S. states where recreational cannabis use has been legalized have all needed to grapple with the persistence of large black markets in cannabis and to generate substantial resources to countering it.”

• Christopher Compton, the undersheriff of Trinity County, which is in California’s Emerald Triangle, said, “We haven’t seen any drop in crime whatsoever. In fact, we’ve seen a pretty steady increase.”

• A study by researchers at the University of Colorado Denver, found, “neighborhoods with one or more medical or recreational dispensary saw increased crime rates that were between 26 and 1,452 percent higher than in neighborhoods without any commercial marijuana activity.”

• A fact sheet from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy argued, “With increased demand for marijuana resulting from legalization, [drug cartels] would likely grow stronger.”

• The Justice Research and Statistics Association interviewed law enforcement officials and found, “Respondents from California indicated that marijuana use was leading to various mental health issues, which in turn produced a rise in violent crime.” Additionally, marijuana users are “increasingly involved in a wide range of property crimes to support their habit: theft, burglary, armed robbery of convenience stores, credit card fraud, as well as violence and extortion associated with marijuana selling.”

• An article in the Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association wrote, “Soon, the mental illness and violence that follow cannabis use also may be too widespread to ignore.”

• Arguing That Cannabis Retailers Would Attract More Crime to Princeton

• Man shot and killed at Tarzana marijuana dispensary in armed robbery

SOURCE: http://www.learnaboutsam.org/

Attacker Smoked Cannabis

"Those whose minds are steeped in cannabis are capable of quite extraordinary criminality."

Attacker Smoked Cannabis: suicide and psychopathic violence in the UK and Ireland

Data on Crime in Colorado

A 2019 study conducted in Denver found that the existence of both recreational and medical marijuana dispensaries in Denver neighborhoods are significantly and positively associated with increased crime (L. Hughes et al., 2019). Researchers found that Denver neighborhoods adjacent to marijuana businesses saw 84.8 more property crimes each year than those without a marijuana shop nearby (Freisthler et al., 2017). The number of court filings charged with the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act that were linked to a marijuana charge increased 639% from 2013 to 2017 (Colorado Department of Public Safety). Further, Crimes Against Society (such as drug violations) have increased 44% since 2014 (Denver Police Department). Colorado’s crime rate in 2016 increased 11 times faster than the 30 largest cities in the nation since legalization (Mitchell, 2017). In 2018, data from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation demonstrates a 14.2% increase in property crime since 2013 (157,360 to 179,650) and a 36.5% increase in violent crime since 2013 (18,475 to 25,212).

Though arrests for marijuana offenses had declined in the years prior to legalization in Colorado, they are increasing again. In 2013, arrests for marijuana sales offenses were at a low of 337, having decreased 52.1% since 2008. From 2013 to 2018, arrests for marijuana sales offenses increased 29.4%. Additionally, prior to legalization, arrests for all drug sales offenses had declined 54.9% (from 2008 to 2013). In the years since, arrests for drug sales offenses have increased 11% (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2018). Overall, while increased crime has not been definitively linked to marijuana legalization, these upward trends in property crime and violent crime—as well as crimes against society—warrant further investigation.

This is data from the nonpartisan group, www.learnaboutsam.org.

To  read more from Smart Approaches to Marijuana’s Lessons Learned from State Marijuana Legalization Impact Report please go here:

https://learnaboutsam.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2020-Impact-Report1.pdf