Colorado Crime Levels See Little Change Since Marijuana Legalization – Study
” Less than six months into the experiment that Colorado took up by legalizing marijuana, state officials have released new data indicating that crime has fallen across a number of demographics since January 1.
The Colorado Department of Public Safety released data through the end of February indicating that not only has the doomsday scenario that law enforcement officials predicted not come true, but crime has fallen by significant margins.
Compared to the same time period in 2013, overall property crime fell by 14.6 percent in Denver. Homicide rates, while not leaving the single digits in either year, fell by 66.7 percent while the number of robberies decreased by seven percent. Other violent offenses have remained consistent or increased.
Authorities have admitted that the two-month sample size is far too small to be conclusive, although the signs are encouraging after fears that Denver would descend into a metropolitan hellscape if cannabis were to become legal for residents over 18 years old.
“ We quite frankly don’t know,” Henny Lasley, spokesperson for Smart Colorado, which aims to keep marijuana away from children, told Vox. “We’ve had three complete months of retail marijuana. We were getting those questions three days into legalization. It’s a pretty short window.” “
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