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posted by on Thursday March 02 2017, @05:44PM   Printer-friendly
from the ideology-vs-scientific-analysis dept.

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?

Note: ThinkProgress redirects all accesses of their pages and will attach tracking numbers. I have made sure that those are not in the URLs.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 03 2017, @04:55PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 03 2017, @04:55PM (#474434)

    what a stupid old bastard. STFU with your drug war propaganda you fucking authoritarian! You are not there to tell us what to do you dumb fuck. the government's job is to provide for the common defense, protect the people from fraud and protect the individual rights of the citizenry! not to rule the lives of the serfs. All authoritarians: keep trying to tell us what to do and we're going to exterminate all you fucking dumb asses. That includes all the little dictators at the local offices of government. you, the stupid fucks who can't make money without stealing by cop.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 03 2017, @05:41PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 03 2017, @05:41PM (#474461)

    Agreed. I think the "good guys" decided to fight fire with fire, so they became the "bad guys". They get off on taking down people they perceive as "bad" which includes anyone driving anywhere with thousands of dollars in cash. Thankfully people are fighting back against civil forfeiture. Jesus christ, they even used a name that sounds like people are voluntarily giving the police their ill-gotten gains.

    How many innocent lives is it OK to destroy just so some arbitrary moral imperatives can be satisfied? I know what my answer is: zero. But hey, they're rebooting 24 so expect to be sold some new updated plot lines about how cops need complete access to anyone's private info, and how being a sociopath who tortures is OK as long as you're "the good guy". It really scared me when I found out these people do exist, and they will bring violence and pain down upon anyone they merely suspect of being a criminal.

    Fucking religious nutjobs.