Pot Legalization and its effects
Submitted by gjohnsit on Wed, 09/06/2017 - 5:18pm
Eight states have legal recreational marijuana. Next year the number could be 11.
According to Marijuana Business Daily, three state legislatures are likely to legalize recreational marijuana in 2018: New Jersey, Vermont and Rhode Island.
New Jersey could actually be the first to do so. Republican Governor Chris Christie leaves office in January, and most signs point to Democrat Phil Murphy winning the gubernatorial election in November. Murphy is in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana, and there's already a bill before the legislature to do so. Perhaps they're waiting until they know there's someone in the governor's office to sign the bill before they pass it.
...And when it comes to medical marijuana, cannabis advocates are beginning to put on the pressure in Louisiana and Iowa in 2018.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions thinks this is a bad thing and it's causing the crime rate to rise.
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 in the same period there, according to figures from the Drug Policy Alliance. In Washington, violent crime rates dropped by 10 percent 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.”
The reason for this trend is/was predictable by anyone knowledgeable of economics.
The collapse in the price of pot has had another very predictable effect that anyone familiar with the history of Prohibition could have seen coming.
To see how changes in state laws affected traffickers, researchers used data from Uniform Crime Reporting Program, an FBI-maintained database. They found that MMLs were linked to a 12.5 percent decrease in violent crime—homicides, aggravated assaults, and robberies—in states bordering Mexico. Using data from the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports, they attributed the decrease in homicides largely to a drop in drug-related killings.
The effect is most pronounced in counties closest to the border (less than 350 kilometers or about 217 miles), and diminishes as you move further inland. The study also shows evidence of "spillover effects"—when an inland state legalizes medical marijuana, the nearest border state sees a decrease in crime. That findings support the theory that the arrival of medical marijuana leads traffickers to dial back their efforts.
Marijuana seizures along the Mexican border fell to their lowest level in at least a decade (from 4 million pounds in 2009 to 1.5 million pounds last year).
"Two or three years ago, a kilogram [2.2 pounds] of marijuana was worth $60 to $90," a Mexican marijuana grower told NPR news in December 2014. "But now they're paying us $30 to $40 a kilo. It's a big difference. If the U.S. continues to legalize pot, they'll run us into the ground."
If only Trump voters were aware of these facts.
Despite this national trend toward legalization, a ridiculous number of people are still getting arrested.
Arrests for possessing small amounts of marijuana exceeded those for all violent crimes last year, a new study has found, even as social attitudes toward the drug have changed and a number of cities and states have legalized its use or decriminalized small quantities.
And a disproportionate number of those arrested are African-Americans, who smoke marijuana at rates similar to whites but are arrested and prosecuted far more often for having small amounts for personal use, according to the study. The arrests can overwhelm court systems.
...With marijuana use on the rise, law enforcement agencies made 574,641 arrests last year for small quantities of the drug intended for personal use, according to the report, which was released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch. The marijuana arrests were about 13.6 percent more than the 505,681 arrests made for all violent crimes, including murder, rape and serious assaults.
Comments
Sessions And Trump - Keeping The Private Prisons Full
Arresting DACA kids and jailing pot tokers will do the trick.
After all the Private Prisons players made big donations to the Trump campaign. It's payback time.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/18/politics/private-prison-department-of-just...
And I seem to recall that Trump's businesses have ties to the Prison Industrial complex , but I can't swear to it.
Donnie The #ShitHole Douchebag. Fake Friend to the Working Class. Real Asshole.
I believe private prisons
are mostly about immigrants.
I could be wrong.
It seems local police forces are about pot, for reasons of control and theft (i.e. asset forfeiture).
Isn't it weird how most of the Confederacy is on the
low end of legalization?
With the exceptions of AR and FL, I think pretty much the entire Confederacy hasn't even got medical, much less recreational.
Puritan New England is interesting; solidly for medical, with a couple of states going recreational. Maine doesn't surprise me, but Rhode Island does.
Most of the West probably thinks the East is crazy. With the exception of Idaho and Utah, who are also very much on the low end of legalization.
I wonder if the Mormons think marijuana is ungodly, or something.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Yes the Mormons think that pot is ungodly
They believe that pot is a gateway drug and it leads to other drug abuses. When people say that they use it for medical purposes, they say that they don't want to get hit by someone who is high.
Many people's minds have been formed by their religious beliefs.
Some person is collecting signatures to put medical pot on the voting rolls.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Actually GA was a pioneer on
CBD legalization, and it has been decriminalized in MS for decades.
Solidarity forever
@Akze I was just going by the
I was just going by the map.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I forgot to mention
Colorado
Washington
Now This Is Good News!!!
This is the kind of news that I just *love* to hear about!
Whatever your personal opinion on marijuana, the effects of legalization are so ultimately progressive in nature that it's just fantastic.
--Reduce the prison population, including prison costs to taxpayers, and thereby reduce establishment control over people, especially minorities and immigrants
--Thereby reduce the need for militarized police departments (which should be illegal in the first place)
--Increase real freedoms. Even the libertarians and conservatives should be on board with that. If not, they are just bullshiting you as to their motives. This is supposed to be the "land of the free." As long as it doesn't hurt others, it should be legal (that's my opinion, at least).
--Give states a new tax base. State houses are being squeezed by the free marketeers (Reduce Taxes!). I *love* that Washington state is putting most of its marijuana tax revenues into its state Medicaid fund. Fucking *fantastic* from a progressive viewpoint!! Increase the safety net for normal people.
I can't wait for New Jersey, Vermont, and Rhode Island to join the wave. If the federal government won't get on board--force them state by state. Eventually, we will turn that increase in marijuana arrests around! We should have it at zero percent!
Progressive Victory!!!
I am with you on this. But reread that last paragraph:
The prison industrial complex is operating at full speed. And many state's budgets and police walking orders are apparently affected by that money. And, it is disproportionately extracted, according to the data, from the lives of black and brown users. These are our fellow citizens who are doing no one harm. No one.
The best part
is being able to grow your own.
I know everything that goes into my final product. No pesticides, herbicides and only organic nutrients. I also use less than half a gallon of water per day per tree (no small bushes here) and let mom nature take care of my lighting.
It's a win all around.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Unfortunately, Pricknick
it is still illegal to grow your own in Washington state, unless you have a Medical card. Then you are limited to twelve plants, iirc.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
The NYS medical cannabis program is joke.
No flower, no home grow, all because Andrew "Blue Dog" Cuomo says cannabis is a dangerous gateway drug and nobody should ever enjoy their medicine. I certainly qualify for the program but wont participate in it until I'm allowed to grow my own medicine legally. I'm sick and tired of being afraid of arrest for doing something that a few miles east in Massachusetts and Vermont would be perfectly legal.
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
So is Minnesota's MML
and a few other states.
But the whole pot legal environment is in middle of changing. What it looks like in the end will appear much different.
I completely agree with you.
I was part of a protest group called the Hemp Coalition in the Albany, NY area back in the late 80's. We demonstrated on the capitol steps and other places to draw attention to the gross hypocrisy of our cannabis laws while educating every person we could on all the uses of cannabis and hemp. To see something you've been working hard at for decades is gratifying. The tide is finally turning. We're almost there.
The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.
The best part
Dumb duplicates.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Cali Craft Beer Summit
With an interesting twist:
Why did they leave out the THC? Very strange. I love Kush with cold beer. Or hot coffee. Soda works too and hot Apple Cider.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/living/food-drink/wine-beer/article17125498...
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
THC
Solvent/solute relationships.
Beer is far too watery to dissolve much THC, which prefers solvents like oils and alkanes.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Of Course!
I've learned how to wash the thc out of Kush with an alcohol solvent to make "wax". Not water soluble at all. Thanks for the insight.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Portland, Oregon has new restaurant
That serves pork from pigs fed pot before butchering.
Called "High on the Hog". 21 or over.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
pigs fed pot!! OMG, i've gotta check this out
It's real, you speak the truth - this is hilarious!
That's cool, here's another story, with a great quote ... I didn't find the restaurant, but the articles about farmers won me.
The restaurant just opened
I plan on looking for it after this Sundays Meetup @ the Lucky Labrador.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
post the name and info when you find it
I'd be interested to know if they ship the 'savory' pork across state lines.
Smoked Pork, BBQ, is like a religion down here in the Carolinas.
Making it known that pigs eating scrap marijuana are fatter and juicier would pit the baptist religion against the BBQ religion in the fight for legalized pot.
Sessions is liar just like his boss
Just outright lie. Jeff (who has been my senator for many years - and the state AG before that) simply creates facts to support his outrageous views.
It has been a successful strategy. Lie enough times and get the media to repeat ad nauseum until people begin to parrot the lie. Like Taxes are bad...taxes are bad...taxes are bad...until it sinks into the national psyche.
They are doing the same thing with pot, immigrants, and any country that won't let us rape their resources. I wish Jeff would smoke him one and chill.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Your graphic has 'Third Way' logo
Yikes!
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member
Sorry I'm late. I was high.
My opinion on this is of course on record.
But I just had a thought, considering the new legality... 20 MILLION people in this country have a felony conviction and cannot vote. Pot and other drugs make up a huge portion of this...
If it really was about winning at any cost, certain politicians would be screaming about the disenfranchisement of those that have already paid their debt to society...
20 million votes... or PIC money. For politicians, the choice is clear.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXDwIo5_AMo]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
And now for the hard-line position:
"the Democratic Party is not 'left'." -- Sabrina Salvati
Global Banks Sabotage Uruguay’s Efforts to Legalize Marijuana
Trying to catch up now it is cooler, so Mexico just had an 8.1 earthquake. Tilt! Disaster overload.
Back to weed: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/09/global-banks-sabotage-uruguays-efforts-legalize-marijuana.html
Should California create a state-owned public bank to serve the cannabis industry? Yes. I remember seeing testimony of the hearings in Sacramento, cash is great but you need a safe place to keep it, and safe ways to count and deliver it. Wall Street is damage to be avoided at this point, to go around.
Thanks Obama!
peace
but those hippies are dangerous.
.
seriously crazy to the bitter end.
the government is not my friend. learned over a lifetime.