Yes No, crime level will stay the same No, it will decrease crime see voting resultssaving...
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100
3 votes
Apr 2, 2015

Weed legalization will effectively reduce crime and cost local police department money. That is why the Federal Government has been so cautious and so unwilling to change it. They know if marijuana is dropped most police departments will face cuts and will have one less source of revenue.

Honestly if cannabis is legalized there will be an increase in chips and soda sales as well as a rise in taco bell goers.

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100
User voted No, it will decrease crime.
1 vote
May 3, 2015

The legalization of any "controlled" substance has already been proven to reduce crime... across the board reduction in crime.

The only reason "things" stay as controlled substances is because there's a LOT of money being made keeping them controlled.

You wouldn't want to remove someone's (or some entity's) job security, now would you?

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100
User voted No, it will decrease crime.
1 vote
Aug 7, 2016

Legalization of marijuana will clearly decrease crime.

First and foremost, criminalization of marijuana use in specific and drug use in general is a failed strategy. It's attempting to treat what is fundamentally a mental and public health issue as a crime control issue. We've had decades of research, including numerous RAND studies, that indicate repeatedly that rehabilitation programs and similar more-compassionate approaches work far better than "source country control" or imprisonment.

It makes sense. People aren't choosing drug use for rational reasons. They're satisfying needs, whether it be self-medicating for conditions like an anxiety disorder or just dealing with some desire or need within them. A deterrent based on fear isn't going to make that fundamental need go away. The best solution is to satisfy the need directly.

Even if you just have a clinic that gives out suboxone or methadone or even straight up gives out high-quality heroin with a safe place for someone to inject, that clinic is going to bring people there who every time they come are going to have a chance to see a Narcotics Anonymous group or get literature for help.

Unsurprisingly, then, all sorts of studies have repeatedly indicated that decriminalizing marijuana is either benign or actively beneficial for crime reduction. Medical marijuana has been net positive in reducing crime. International analyses confirm domestic analyses as well. While it may be a bit unfair to compare the U.S. to the Netherlands, it is still unquestionable that the countries in Europe that have the lowest rates of recidivism and the most enlightened crime policy all treat drug control as a social issue rather than a criminal one.

It's astonishing when people try to argue that legalizing marijuana will worsen crime even as they have to admit that doing so starves the cartels. When legitimate growers and distributors emerge, and they have the police to protect their property from theft or damage or sabotage, the cartels have no chance. Why would you ever buy from a sketchy drug dealer with an Uzi when you can go to a nice store in town that's playing some Doobie Bros. on the PA?

And remember: Nothing prevents regulation of a legalized product. One can still deter against excessive drug use, say by having sobriety tests when one is pulled over or allowing employers to drug test.

Legalizing marijuana helps addicts get help instead of needing to turn to crime and stay within a criminal subculture to get their fix, breaks the power of dangerous drug cartels, and promotes an entire legitimate sector of the economy that will let a benign mind-altering consumer product comparable to alcohol or caffeine be sold by legitimate vendors paying their taxes and complying with the law. Private business will promote employment, leading to lower rates of unemployment, while public institutions will actually benefit from a massive economy that they at present can't tax. Police officers will be able to focus on actual crimes instead of trying to stop people from using one of the most popular mind-altering chemicals in human history. The notion that all of these effects would somehow be eclipsed is absurd. Marijuana is even more benign than alcohol: it doesn't tend to promote violence or criminal behavior. If decriminalizing alcohol unquestionably reduced crime, how would decriminalizing marijuana fail to do the same?

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100
User voted No, crime level will stay the same.
1 vote
Aug 7, 2016

We've seen an increase in crime in Colorado, and in Seattle, but we don't know if it was the result of marijuana or not, we don't have enough data or had enough time to tell for sure, but odds are crime levels will stay about same as marijuana made up so little of the crime in the first place. The number of arrests in 2012 was a little over 12 million, the total that year of all drugs was about 1.5 million with about half of that from marijuana. But odds are a lot of those arrest wasn't only for marijuana, but that charge was add with other offences so the crime rate will stay about the same.

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0
opinion
5 votes
Apr 2, 2015

It will not be immediate, but Marijuana is believed to change the brains growth and Chemistry. This will influence and destroy the person for all their life. As with heavy drinkers who's brain chemistry changes and they change and become violent or unhinged. This can easily start to happen with heavy MJ users. Because of the desire the next high or the drug that can give them a better high. Legalization has already been linked to higher crime rates in other countries. Could that happen here?

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100
main reply
5 votes,
Apr 2, 2015

Marijuana is believed to change the brains growth and Chemistry. This will influence and destroy the person for all their life. As with heavy drinkers who's brain chemistry changes and they change and become violent or unhinged.

Everything affects brain chemistry. If that's going to be the bar by which we make substances illegal, we're going to have a bad time. Even the most recent study on cannabis use in the Journal of Neuroscience, the findings describe structural changes in the amygdala and conclude with a call for more research as it is not know what these changes actually mean.

This can easily start to happen with heavy MJ users.

There is another thing that causes structural changes in the amygdala -- regular exercise. I'd be hard pressed to find a study that links regular exercise with increased 'violence or unhinging.' Just because something affects the brain, doesn't mean it's always going to be a bad thing. An individual suffering from involuntary muscle spasms or frequent seizures would find brain manipulating substances a god-send -- as they often do -- often with cannabis.

Legalization has already been linked to higher crime rates in other countries.

This is patently untrue. Netherlands has some of the most lax cannabis regulation in world -- last year they closed eight prisons because they ran out of prisoners.

Could that happen here?

I'd love it if it did. Running out of prisoners is something every country should aspire to. Also, a 2014 paper in PlosONE by RG Morris conclude the following on loosening marijuana restrictions:

"Results did not indicate a crime exacerbating effect of MML (Medical Marijuana Legalization) on any of the Part I offenses. Alternatively, state MML may be correlated with a reduction in homicide and assault rates, net of other covariates."

edit: spelling

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0
0 votes,
Apr 2, 2015

Running out of prisoners is something every country should aspire to.

No, it isn't. We need more prisoners, not less. How are private prison corporations supposed to earn ever-greater profits if there's less prisoners? Why do you hate capitalism, and want to punish success?

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100
main reply
5 votes,
Apr 2, 2015

Legalisation is likely to significantly decrease crime. At the moment, the sheer fact of it being illegal means that anyone caught with any quantity or even paraphernalia is almost automatically guilty of a crime (less so if you are white), and the jails are full of many people in this category.

Hence legilisation will immediately eliminate this complete group from the category of "criminals", thereby allowing them to get jobs without the stigma of being a criminal forever on their record, allow them to vote, and keep them out of the prison system which rarely rehabilitates or retrains people, it mainly just releases people who have been hardened into full time criminals by their experience, destroying their complete future.

Most international research shows some long term effects from high usage, but most of those are of laziness and lethargy, not increased violence as with alcohol or many harder drugs, and that same research shows a decrease in transference to harder drugs when MJ is more socially available and acceptable..

When MJ is legal to grow, sell or buy, and able to be quality controlled, taxed etc, that removes it from the hands of the existing criminal gangs who tend to control and deal it, reducing their size, their income and their influence. It also removes potential customers from being forced to interact with gangs and other criminals, further reducing being dragged into anti-social endeavors.

There will always be some people who abuse themselves with excess drugs. The good thing is that it is impossible to overdose on MJ, it is impossible to kill yourself with MJ, the worst physical damage is that it might increase your longterm chances of getting lung cancer.

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100
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2 votes,
Apr 2, 2015

Nonsense . In Portugal where it is legal use has gone down .

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100
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1 vote,
Apr 2, 2015

If you are equating marijuana use with alcohol use, wouldn't you conclude that the law should treat them equally?

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50
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2 votes,
Apr 2, 2015

>As with heavy drinkers who's brain chemistry changes and they change and become violent or unhinged.

Alcohol and cannabis have completely different effects on the brain. Stating that heavy smokers will end up like heavy drinkers is completely ungrounded in reality.

>Because of the desire the next high or the drug that can give them a better high.

There is no such thing as a gateway drug. Cannabis users are not going to start smoking crack for a better high.

>Legalization has already been linked to higher crime rates in other countries.

This is completely false. In fact, the opposite is true. Crime rates fall where cannabis is made legal, since people smoking a little cannabis every now and then are no longer prosecuted and people are able to sell legally instead of through the black market.

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0 votes
Aug 15, 2016

Legalization of marijuana in general should not be allowed, so you will not think about the consequences. It will be very wrong.

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