Updated(3): Rising Crime Rates In Washington, DC, Denver, Alaska and Seattle After Pot Legalized

Posted March 17, 2016 10:33 PM ET; Last updated April 13, 2016 10:35 PM ET

[Updated April 13, 2016 10:35 PM ET]

[From article]
Washington, DC, did indeed legalize marijuana on February 26, 2015, and since then, violent crime has increased substantially.
According to the latest crime data from the Metropolitan Police Department, the number of violent crimes during the first three months of 2016 is up 15% compared to the same time frame last year. By comparison, population growth in the area is only 2% per year.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/03/dc_legalizes_marijuana_violent_crime_increases.html

March 30, 2016
DC legalizes marijuana, violent crime increases
By Sierra Rayne

* * *



[Updated March 23, 2016 8:51 PM ET]

[From article]
In February of 2015, it became legal to grow and consume marijuana in Alaska. And, as has happened in Denver and Seattle, crime immediately began to increase after being stable or declining in the pre-legal pot era.
[. . .]
Channel 2 KTUU out of Anchorage reports that the 2015 "spike in Anchorage's murder rate along with other violent crime underscores why more patrol officers and detectives are needed on the streets, according to police, victims' advocates, union officials and city promoters."
More police are needed, along with a repeal of Alaska's legal marijuana experiment. The relatively small tax revenues from legalized weed do not come close to offsetting the corresponding economic and social costs.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/03/alaska_legalizes_pot_crime_explodes_in_anchorage.html

March 19, 2016
Alaska legalizes pot, crime explodes in Anchorage
By Sierra Rayne

* * *



[Updated March 18, 2016 5:34 PM ET]
[From article]
As 2016 starts, crime is up yet again in the post-marijuana legalization metropolis of Denver, Colorado.
[. . .]
Population increase doesn't come close to explaining the trend. Annual growth rates for population in the Denver and Metro Denver areas have been consistent at just 2% over this period, meaning the crime rate is rising rapidly.
And yet, somehow the Denver Post claims that "in any given year, marijuana-related crimes in Denver make up less than 1 percent of all offenses counted in the Uniform Crime Report
[. . .]
There is no reliable way to determine what percentage of the reported crimes are due to marijuana legalization. Some offenses, when investigated by authorities, will show an unequivocal direct cause to marijuana use. But it is simply impossible to accurately measure all offenses directly caused by pot use.
[. . .]
Consequently, the low rate of proven direct associations between crime in Denver and marijuana use is expected, and it tells us nothing about the actual direct causes of marijuana use on crime in the region. It is simply an unknowable question.
Equally important is the indirect effect of marijuana use. The legalization of pot sends a powerful anti-societal message to many, and its use can lead to socio-economic decline for individuals and families – the results of which may take a long period to show their real effects and be essentially impossible to link to marijuana use without a suite of equally long (and expensive) case studies. We lack the resources for these investigations, and, as a result, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
[. . .]
But what we do know is that the number of crimes in Denver skyrocketed started at the same time the legalized marijuana policy was implemented, and this empirical evidence, combined with what science tells us about the harmful psychological effects of marijuana use, is, while not conclusive, strongly suggestive that the social fabric is starting to unravel in the Mile-High City due to pot legalization.
And now we see that "Colorado's Governor is cautioning other states from legalizing marijuana." According to a report by Channel 7 ABC in Denver, Gov. John Hickenlooper made the following statements at a conference in Dallas on Tuesday:
You get all those young people who do certain things that some of us oppose and aren't crazy about, like legalizing marijuana. Let me tell you, if you're trying to encourage businesses to move to your state, some of the larger businesses, think twice about legalizing marijuana.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/03/crime_continuing_to_rise_in_denver_in_the_legal_pot_era.html

March 12, 2016
Crime continuing to rise in Denver in the legal pot era
By Sierra Rayne

* * *



[From article]
Between 2008 and 2012, the number of total crimes and property crimes in the city was stable or declining, consistent with trends at the national level. Since adult possession of marijuana became legal in December 2012, the number of crimes has risen rapidly.
[. . .]
Given that we see the same pre-/post-pot legalization crime pattern in Denver, while correlation is not necessarily causation, it is certainly suggestive based on the data from these geographically distinct regions.
Time must also be taken to debunk a key talking point of legal marijuana proponents: equating the difficulties of alcohol prohibition with marijuana prohibition. These two drugs present very different law enforcement challenges. The former can never be effectively eliminated, whereas availability of the latter can be substantially reduced via criminalization.
[. . .]
In short, a prohibition on the materials from which alcohol is derived would lead to immediate mass starvation and, soon thereafter, the extinction of the human species (i.e., we would need to pretty much ban the biosphere), whereas a prohibition on the materials from which THC is derived requires us ONLY to criminalize a single largely commercially irrelevant, plant species. Attempting to equate these two efforts is intellectual nonsense and belies a clear lack of knowledge regarding the underlying science behind the two drugs.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/03/in_seattle_number_of_crimes_way_up_compared_to_prelegal_pot_era.html

March 16, 2016
In Seattle, number of crimes way up compared to pre-legal pot era
By Sierra Rayne