Violent Crime Drops Where People Have Access to Marijuana, Study Suggests

[Jackpine Radical]

http://www.alternet.org/drugs/increased-access-cannabis-associated-reductions-violent-crimes?akid=11712.187861.a7Y9mw&rd=1&src=newsletter981068&t=5

April 11, 2014 |

AlterNet / By Paul Armentano

Opponents of marijuana legalization, particularly members of law enforcement, frequently claim that liberalizing cannabis laws will lead to an increase in incidences of criminal activity, such as burglary, robbery, and driving under the influence. But two recent scientific papers report that just the opposite is true.

In the most recent paper, published online in March in the scientific journal PLoS ONE, researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas reported that the enactment of laws legalizing people’s access to medical marijuana is not associated with any rise in statewide criminal activity, and that it may even be related to reductions in incidences of violent crime.

Investigators tracked crime rates across all 50 states in the years between 1990 and 2006, during which time 11 states—Alaska (1998), California (1996), Colorado (2000), Hawaii (2000), Maine (1999), Montana (2004), Nevada (2000), Oregon (1998), Rhode Island (2006), Vermont (2004), and Washington (1998)—legalized the use, home cultivation, and (in some cases) the retail dispensing of marijuana for medical purposes. (A total of 20 states and the District of Columbia have now approved similar laws.) Authors reviewed FBI Uniform Crime Report data to determine whether there exists any association between the enactment of medicinal cannabis laws and rates of statewide criminal activity, specifically the number of reported crimes involving homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, and auto theft. Their analysis is the first to look at multiple offenses across multiple states and time periods to determine whether medical marijuana legalization impacts state crime rates.

Authors reported that the passage of medical marijuana laws is not associated with an increase in any of the seven crime types assessed, but that liberalized laws are associated with decreases in certain types of violent crime.

[JJChambers]

1. Alternet (still) isn't a credible source

[AgingAmerican]

5. It links to the source

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0092816

[abelenkpe]

7. Really? Why is that? nt

[JJChambers]

12. Flashy headlines, questionable conclusions

Alternet is the left's version of sites like WorldnetDaily.

As progressives, we should deal in facts, not propaganda -- even when the propaganda appeals to our interests.

[abelenkpe]

13. flashy headlines, questionable conclusions

Sounds like all media!

Maybe I'm too cynical?

[TheSarcastinator]

18. hey, that's a great ad hominem, now how about addressing the actual article?

Instead of attacking the messenger? No? Carry on, critical thinker.

On edit: what smears do you have to give against the authors of the study? Are they lefties? Liberal liars? http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0092816#abstract0

[HughBeaumont]

28. Alternet is the exact spectrum opposite as a creationist and racist wingnut blog?

Are you absolutely sure about this?

Many of Alternet's economic and political articles are right on the money and have the facts and data to back them up.

[tooeyeten]

16. How does it happen

Then that no other country in the universe has the violent crime like America, or the incarceration rate?

[Enthusiast]

22. Alternet is a perfectly credible source.

Maybe they don't appreciate Alternet on Free Republic.

[xfundy]

29. Really?

[Rod Beauvex]

2. Even better.

It also drops when people have access to MONEY.

Economic inequality breeds crime.

[RKP5637]

4. Definitely! And IMO the most significant contributor to crime, etc. n/t

[RKP5637]

3. And a direct source is:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0092816

[LW1977]

6. Unfortunately

My Democratic Governor and the DFL state legislators are cowards who will cowtow to police chiefs before they make decisions, and we're only talking about medical marijuana.

[tea and oranges]

8. PLoS ONE

is not a credible journal. I'm a retired researcher in the sciences. It wasn't considered a reliable source & when others cited it, it raised red flags.

I'm totally for full legalization, but like my info to be better researched.

[valerief]

9. As the NRA would say, "Not enough violence? Clearly, they need more guns!" nt

[CanSocDem]

10. "I smoked pot...

...once. It made me want to rape and kill."



.

[The Wizard]

11. They really needed a study?(NT)

[hollowdweller]

14. The healing of the nations

Genesis 1:11 "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so."
Genesis 1:29 "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb-bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat."
Genesis 3:18 "... thou shalt eat the herb of the field."
Psalms 104:14 "He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man."
Proverbs 15:17 "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith."[39]
Revelation 22:2 " the river of life proceeded to flow from the throne of God, and on either side of the bank there was the tree of life, and the leaf from that tree is for the healing of the nations."

[The Straight Story]

15. Prohibtion doesn't work. Yet some people still are in love with the idea

on any number of things.

[Turbineguy]

17. Ambition

has no boundaries.

[TheSarcastinator]

19. it's very interesting to me that the critical comments in this thread

focus on attacking either the aggregator/internet site or the journal that published the study -- no one, apparently, actually bothered to read the study, check the methodology and comment on the (rather interesting, important and decently documented) findings. Do their Sociodemographic Control Variables accurately reflect what they should? Is the authors' 17 year fixed effects panel design of data analysis the proper one for this context? Are the final numbers reflective of actual cultural change; are they statistically significant? Are their checks on the robustness of the data accurate?

[Jackpine Radical]

21. Thank you.

I looked at the study and it seems quite methodologically sound. And yes, I believe that I have the statistical background necessary to make that judgment.

[mzmolly]

20. It's the lazy

factor.

[Enthusiast]

23. Exactly. When people get high they actually do want to kill children and pets.

But the pot makes them so lazy, they just lie there, their wishes unfulfilled.

[Nobel_Twaddle_III]

24. If I can not get off the couch to make a frito pie, the neighborhood is safe tonight.

[Enthusiast]

25. Thank God for small favors.

Probably saved many lives.

[mzmolly]

32. LOL

[mzmolly]

30. .

[Ghost in the Machine]

26. Pot never made me lazy, it gave me energy, made me more creative and motivated, as well as

allowed me to concentrate one one thing at a time and stay on task. I usually had a hundred billion things flying around inside my head, and I'd just try to grab one and go with it but always got bored, or distracted, and then moved on to something else. I usually had a half dozen or more unfinished projects going on at any given time because I couldn't stay on task. I got to where I would "wake~n~bake", and would sometimes finish two or three projects in a day.

Pot also helped me end a 12 to 13 year cocaine addiction when I dropped a $1,000/day habit cold turkey and never had to go to rehab and never had withdrawals. It also played a major role when I quit drinking 4 years later. Same thing... no withdrawals, no rehab. I've been clean ever since, and never even had cravings either. That's been since 1992 on the cocaine and 1996 on the alcohol. I quit smoking pot in Feb of 2003, as a 40th b'day present to myself.

In Sept of '03 I was in a bad work related accident which left me disabled. The doctors gave me oxycodone 10mg 4x/day. I hated pills, and wouldn't even take an aspirin for a headach before then. When I took the first pill, it knocked me out within 20-25 minutes and I slept for 6 hours! I couldn't function like that, being a single father with small kids to take care of. I knew about medical marijuana, so I decided to start smoking again. My doctor had no problem with that. When I wound up having two major neck surgeries in Sept. & Nov. of 2004, my neurosurgeon gave me a script for more oxy 10s, after having been on a morphine pump in the hospital for a week after each surgery. I weaned myself off of the pills within 2 weeks of the 2nd surgery and started smoking pot again. I stayed on them after the first surgery, and Sept. thru Nov. are still a haze to this day. My neurosurgeon told me, off the record, that marijuana was one of the best pain relievers known to man.

I was never totally pain-free, but I was able to function. My doc gave me a script for 120 oxy 10s, and I only took ONE on the REALLY BAD days/nights, when I hurt so bad I was in tears and couldn't get comfortable or sleep. Doc finally told he had done all he could for me, and said he would refer me to pain management. I fought against going for nearly 7 years, mainly because I had to pass a drug test and I told the pain doctor that I couldn't hurt all day and night, every day, until my system got clean. I told him if he gave me pain meds I would quit smoking, he said quit smoking and i'll give you meds. We butted heads for a few months until he told me "Ok, you have always been honest with me so I am going to give you two months worth of meds. at the end of that 2 months you're getting drug tested. If you have ANYTHING else in your system, we're done!" I shook his hand, told him we had a deal and I would keep my word... which I did.

To make a long story shorter, I develop a quick tolerance to stuff and got to where I was on SIX 30mg roxicodones/day (180mgs/day) and still building tolerance. Now I am on two 40mg Opanas/day along with 2 15mg roxies for breakthrough pain. The Opana is supposed to be a 12 hour pill, but only lasts me about 8 to 9 hours.... and I am addicted to the opioids. BAD! I take them like I'm supposed to, but if I go longer than 12 - 13 hours without anything, I start into withdrawals. It sucks big time! I'd rather be back on pot, but I KNOW I'll have to go through rehab to get off these damned pills. I told the pain doc 2 months ago that if these started to quit working, I wanted to get off of the opioids altogether. We discussed Suboxone and Naloxone, but the bad thing is that they don't help with pain. I don't know what to do anymore and I am about at the end of my rope.... hanging on by a thread...

Peace,

Ghost

[B Calm]

27. Amazing story +1!

[mzmolly]

31. I was being

silly.

I am glad you found a positive use for the substance. I don't possess a Pollyanna like view of what it does to human beings. However, I do think of it as a medicinal substance that has the potential good and bad consequences, depending.