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The Center for American Progress reports
On [February 27], days after White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters to expect stricter enforcement of federal pot law, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recycled discredited drug war talking points in remarks of his own.
"I believe it's an unhealthy practice, and current levels of THC in marijuana are very high compared to what they were a few years ago, and we're seeing real violence around that", Sessions said. "Experts are telling me there's more violence around marijuana than one would think and there's big money involved."
In reality, violent crime rates tend to decrease where marijuana is legalized.
Denver saw a 2.2 percent drop in violent crime rates in the year after the first legal recreational cannabis sales in Colorado. Overall property crime dropped by 8.9 percent [PDF] in the same period there, according to figures from the Drug Policy Alliance. In Washington, violent crime rates dropped by 10 percent [PDF] from 2011 to 2014. Voters legalized recreational marijuana there in 2012.
Medical marijuana laws, which have a longer track record for academics than recreational pot legalization, are also associated with stable or falling violent crime rates. In one 2014 study of the 11 states that legalized medical pot from 1990 to 2006, there was no increase in the seven major categories of violent crime and "some evidence of decreasing rates of some types of violent crime, namely homicide and assault."
[...] Elsewhere in his remarks, Sessions unwittingly made the case against treating pot activity like serious crime. "You can't sue somebody for drug debt". he said. "The only way to get your money is through strong-arm tactics, and violence tends to follow that."
Legalizing, regulating, and taxing the sale of marijuana is the surest way to remedying that exact tendency for pot commerce to trigger violent score-settling. Legalization invites pot business into the light, granting cannabusinesses at least partial access to official modes of recourse when they are defrauded.
8 states and the District of Columbia have legalised marijuana for recreational use.
Ever see anyone use cannabis and become more aggressive rather than more mellow?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 03 2017, @04:21PM
"So, like a panic-stricken fool, you bought into the false dichotomy that the media, ignorant general public, and two parties try to sell you every single election. If they can just scare you into voting for bad candidates, there's no reason to be better. Even not voting at all is better than voting for evil. Our current political system is, at least to me, fairly good evidence that the average person is little more than an overgrown child when it comes to the ability to do long-term planning."
exactly, people make a bunch of excuses why they keep voting for bad candidates as if they aren't the freaking problem. Vote third party, you dumb monkey! It doesn't matter if the party has been hijacked by a moron like Gary Johnson! he's not gonna freaking win anyways! It doesn't matter if you're even a libertarian, they're not gonna win anytime soon! Once they get close to winning vote 4th party if you're not a libertarian. Get more parties funded and in the damn debates and maybe you'll get a more perfect socialist or whatever it is you want!