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: 2) by Grishnakh on Friday March 03 2017, @04:34PM (1 child)
At that same time polling numbers said a whole bunch of republicans didn't like trump. But by the time the election came around they all jumped on the trump train.
They jumped on the Trump train because the alternative was Hillary, and there was no way in hell they were voting for her. Hitler himself could have run against her and they would have voted for him. Do you seriously not understand this?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 04 2017, @06:38AM
Jesus could have run as a democrat against trump and they still would have voted for trump.
IF they didn't like Trump they could have abstained. Instead he got like 2 million more than romney did.
The majority simply don't care about policy all that much, they care about tribe.
If you haven't figured that out yet, then you are the one who doesn't understand how politics and group dynamics in general works.