Do you think Colorado's drop in crime rate has anything to do w legal pot?

Need more data, more time I mean.

Yes. How could it not?

Did violent crime go up after the D.C. gun ban because of it?

Definitely some of it, but there's also added crime because these pot dispensaries are being rolled because they are LOADED with cash.

Probably, considering there are less people getting arrested and prosecuted for marijuana-related crimes.

Premature dude.....not a good thing.;)

Needs more time

It's possible, I certainly wouldn't think they'd make it go up, but I'd like to see how these numbers compare to national averages.

Only because until recently banks wouldn't handle the cash due to fear of the feds.

What does that have to do with the topic?

Everybody is chilling and getting along now in Colorado, long live ganja.

Isn't that still the case? I haven't heard anything about banks allowing these businesses to store their cash.

From what I've heard banks are still cautious about lending to them, although anecdotally some are willing to turn a blind eye to businesses that don't explicitly say what they're doing (just anecdotally so I don't know if this is actually common).

Amen. Now what states will be next?

It's a horribly misleading statistic if people are taking it as pot is lowering crime. If you take something that was illegal and make it "legal", crime is likely to go down. If murder and rape was to become legal, crime would statistically plummet also. I'm for pot's legalization when done right, but the statistic is likely going to be misconstrued.

It does make sense that a fall in arrests for marijuana abuse would lead to less crime, since you're reintroducing fewer criminals into the population.

Read the OP again.

I did read the OP. I'm not even going to address the 2% decrease in violent crime as that number is ridiculously low and can swing that much at any given time. As for the property crime, I suppose that would make sense as a large chunk of property crimes are either for drugs or to get money for them. If you can get them at the store, it decreases the need for people to commit crimes for it. To suggest, though, that pot itself is reducing crime is ludicrous. I'd like to see a real statistic of what percentage of people now buying pot legally, were already using it before hand. If I had to guess, it would be extremely high. I could be horribly wrong, but I think we need more detailed, longer term numbers.

There's this, but I haven't investigated the issue further so...

Because I want to see the liberals choking on their double standard. They only believe in cause/effect laws when it is convenient for them.

Violent crime doesn't go up in DC over a gun ban because legalized weed in Colorado might've caused violent crime to go down.

You appear to have the analytical skills of a brick wall.

Just liberals? Or is that not kind of a human thing?

vfibsux would be hard pressed to admit that liberals are actually human

Sure everyone is capable of it but I am giving a specific example here.......liberals have a hard time logically putting the facts together that D.C. became the murder capital of the world AFTER the gun ban. Yet I am sure the thought to legalizing pot having a positive effect on crime rates is completely believable to the majority of them because they want to believe it. Just seeing how many hypocrites I can bring out from under their rocks here.

As for me, I am not a conservative...legalize all the pot you like.

Nah liberals are human, we just need to give them their own country so they leave the rest of America alone. Maybe you guys can have California? Oh wait.....

Why would it?

A quick google search shows that Guns were banned in DC in 1975. It was named the murder capital of the world in 1990, which was attributed to the introduction of crack cocaine.

And of course you would probably believe anything anyone told you that included what you want to hear.

Ask google this, since it is your main source of information.....or you can try thinking logically and see how that works. The year after the D.C. gun ban was lifted murder rates plummeted 25%......did all the crack happen to disappear in the same year?

Well your initial connection was that gun ban was the direct cause of the murder capital, but there was over a decade between the two. Honestly I would have to look at all the available data to see what caused the change in murder rates.

Also, does vfib stand for something else, or do you just really hate ventricular fibrillation?

That may be a bit generous.

"You guys" :hah:

my man I probably have more disdain for American liberalism than even you

neither are opinions?

Your original post basically said that crime statistics "appear to be lower" simply because we're no longer counting marijuana usage as a crime. The OP and the link clearly show that their measurements didn't include marijuana usage for either period.

Correlation != Causation

That being said, it's entirely possible that legal marijuana has had these positive effects, but we can't simply state that because one event occurred it then affected another.

These statistics were clearly made up because I can tell you first hand that the Marijuana fueled criminals are destroying everything and starting riots constantly. No one is safe especially not the children.