Denver Murder Rate Cut in Half After Marijuana Legalization. Coincidence?

According to statistics recently released by the government in Denver, the amount of robberies and violent crimes significantly decreased since marijuana legalization went into effect. It is important to mention that this strong correlation is not definitive proof that legalization is the cause of this drop in crime, but it does strongly suggest that this is the case.

thefreethoughtproject.com...

If these figures are true it speaks volumes.Murder rates down by 52.9%. Sexual assaults down by 13.6%. Robberies reduced by 4.8% and assaults were down by 3.7%. This has happened in a very short period of time too. Figures over the same period of 2013 and 2014 were compared to get the stats.

Marijuana Legalisation seems to be having a profound and postive social change. Lets see how these figures pan out in larger studies..

purp

a reply to: purplemer

Well, two points I'd like to bring up as purely rhetorical.

1. What are the actual numbers for murders? If there were 2 murders last year and only 1 this year for the same time frame, there's a drop of 50%

2. As one of the commenters on that link indicated, it WAS an extremely cold winter compared to the same period last year. Perhaps everyone just stayed away from everyone else?

And those with vested interest in the for profit prison industry will see this and freak out.

Hopefully some of our fellow pro-prohibition members will look at this and reconsider their stance. This is really no surprise to anyone my age(early 30s), except maybe that big of a drop in crime.

This is def because of legalization. Sometimes people just need to "get normal" by using weed, and this is exactly what people have been saying for a long time. It would reduce crime, violence, etc. a reply to: purplemer

Denver Murder Rate Cut in Half After Marijuana Legalization. Coincidence? I think not!

Sorry. I had to do it.

1. What are the actual numbers for murders? If there were 2 murders last year and only 1 this year for the same time frame, there's a drop of 50%

In Denver, for the 4 month period Jan-Apr, there were 17 murders in 2013 and 8 in 2014.

EDIT:

Here are the actual numbers:


Source - denvergov.org

It's going to take more than 4 months worth of data to come to any reasonable conclusions, but so far crime has been marginally lower in contrast to fear mongers' predictions of a steep rise.

but it does strongly suggest that this is the case.

No, it doesn't.

17 homicides is not a lot. A reduction to 8 is not a lot.

Oh, wait... Arson went from 20 to 47. So stoners don't kill, they just burn down buildings.

Stupid analysis. Four months indicates nothing.

And, btw, I think smoking pot is fine.

a reply to: Phage

So phage... are the only chemtrails you see filled with THC then? lmfao...

You have a valid point though. Those are not really numbers that are safe to be basing statistics like this off of, even if it is actually a 50 percent decrease.

I would be willing to bet, at least one of those fires were caused by someone mishandling thier umm... memorobilia. Torches are becoming a potheads best friend these days.

originally posted by: Phage

but it does strongly suggest that this is the case.

No, it doesn't.

17 homicides is not a lot. A reduction to 8 is not a lot.

Oh, wait... Arson went from 20 to 47. So stoners don't kill, they just burn down buildings.

Stupid analysis. Four months indicates nothing.

And, btw, I think smoking pot is fine.

True for homicides, but the numbers still went down for many crimes, which is good, whether related to pot or not.

a reply to: andr3w68
Arson is a crime, not an accident.

I think the first thing that comes to mind is how the official line is that black market dealing causes violence. Yet, when you look at it, what actually causes the violence?


PR Release: "Today we took XXXXX amount of drugs off the street worth approximately 2 million dollars, which deals a major blow to violent gangs responsible for selling these drugs."

2 million, and where is that money supposed to come from to pay the debt? There isn't any insurance companies paying out on 'losses due to seizure'.

This one really gets me. Yes, some of these gangs and organized crime groups, and even independents are violent, and use that to deal with problems. But it's not like they can go to civil court, call the police if they are robbed, go to a newspaper when there's problems.

So in effect, the policing and persecution will cause violence because it will leave people in debt, with nothing to make up for it. It will cut off supply lines and market demand will skyrocket over available supply. Leading to a host of (criminal) behaviours much worse than the law on drugs.

The list goes on and on.

I must say though, while I enjoy the topic, the following must be said about this

Not to say that the headlines are anything to get excited over. Correlation does not prove causation. While it's interesting, and may very well be related in some degree, it would take much more data to conclusively say as much.

a reply to: purplemer

Right so sexual assault, armed robberies and murder is down and legalised pot is the reason.

As rightly pointed out the stats are not directly related, unless of course you're of the belief that stoners had to rape, steal and murder in order to illegally acquire their drugs.

But now that it's legal they don't?

Whats changed In your opinion then?

a reply to: theantediluvian

Arson rates rose by 140%! Coincidence?

I'm totally in favour of the changes to the law, but these stats don't prove anything.

Here's the complete set of statistics. Overall there has been a 12% increase in crime. Crimes against persons up 26%!
OMG! Reefer madness!
www.denvergov.org...

originally posted by: AlphaHawk
a reply to: purplemer

Right so sexual assault, armed robberies and murder is down and legalised pot is the reason.

As rightly pointed out the stats are not directly related, unless of course you're of the belief that stoners had to rape, steal and murder in order to illegally acquire their drugs.

But now that it's legal they don't?

Whats changed In your opinion then?

If crime goes down do to pot, it is because the criminals are chilled out. You ever meet someone who is too angry, or high strung? This may help. Not saying that these stats are related, I think people just want to look for reasons to promote legalizing.

a reply to: Phage

I am aware. I was stating that it wouldn't surprise me if someones lighter or torch was the starting point for one of those. Meaning, I wouldn't find it hard to believe that a stoner had started a fire with the same object as he/she lights their plant with.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Only stat to have gone up is arson. "Up in Smoke" comes to mind.

a reply to: SixX18

Ahh ok so did usage increase when it became legal?

Honest question here, because from what I've seen, if you want to use it, you will regardless of legalities, so I'm doubtful that making it legal made any difference except to some dealers.

originally posted by: HorizonMan
a reply to: theantediluvian

Arson rates rose by 140%! Coincidence?

I'm totally in favour of the changes to the law, but these stats don't prove anything.

Agreed. It was simply an opportunistic reference to the "Coincidence? I think not." meme which may or may have started with a quote attributed to Paul Newman.

"24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not."

a reply to: AlphaHawk

I'm sure the numbers have increased slightly. There are a lot of people that wont do it simply because it is a crime. My girlfriends father is one. I would say the numbers haven't increased too dramatically though.