Drug Legalization and Crime Rates

This study aims to fill these important knowledge gaps. Specifically, this is a large-scale study using consistent county-level crime reporting data that examines changes in rates of a variety of serious crimes, including violent crime, property crime, robbery, aggravated assault, theft, motor vehicle theft, and burglary, in Oregon, compared to the 19 states1 that have not legalized recreational or medical marijuana (until 2017). In addition, as a robustness test of the results, we also performed analyses with a control group consisting of five states2 where only medical marijuana is legal during the study period. Not only does this study provide a longer observation period from 2007 to 2017, but it also includes an analysis of crime data for all counties in the 25 states studied. None of these studies prove that increased cannabis use has led to an increase in psychosis or other mental illnesses at the population level, although they offer suggestive evidence of a link. It is clear that marijuana can cause psychosis in individual cases and that psychosis is a high risk factor for violence. In addition, much of this violence occurs when psychotic people use drugs. As long as people with schizophrenia avoid recreational drugs, they are only moderately more likely to become violent than healthy people. But when they use drugs, their risk of violence increases. The drug they are most likely to use is cannabis. [4] Rice, A. (2019).

A Direct Look at the Effects of Marijuana on Violent Crime (manuscript). University of Washington. Access by digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/44495 The classic rape scenario creates the expectation that „actual rape” will only occur in the context of certain situational characteristics. These stereotypical expectations are attributed to low reporting rates of sexual assault, especially compared to other violent crimes such as robbery. However, the literature on reporting sexual assault has been separated from the broader criminological literature on reporting with few comparisons with other types of crime, so the uniqueness of these situational factors for sexual assault is unknown. Robbery is particularly suitable to be compared to sexual assault because of the presence of situational characteristics similar to those of „real rape” and the absence of stereotypical expectations of victimization. Using logistic regression and multi-equation-probit modelling, this study uses the NCVS to examine the decision to report robberies and sexual assaults to police, as well as the differences attributed to the negative perception of police for non-filers. We found that robberies were indeed more likely to reflect the classic scenario and therefore more accurately reflect what is expected in the classic rape scenario. However, there were few differences in the decision to report and the reasons for non-reporting between the classic characteristics of the scenarios.

Implications and directions for future research are discussed. But the number of Americans who use a lot of cannabis is skyrocketing. In 2006, about 3 million Americans reported using the drug at least 300 times a year, the norm for daily use. By 2017, that number had risen to 8 million — nearly 12 million Americans who drank every day. In other words, only one in 15 drinkers consumed alcohol daily; About one in five marijuana users used cannabis as often. And they consume cannabis, which is much stronger than ever, as measured by the amount of THC it contains. THC, or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, is the chemical responsible for the psychoactive effects of the drug. In the 1970s, most marijuana contained less than 2% THC. Today, marijuana regularly contains 20-25% THC, thanks to sophisticated cultivation and cloning techniques and users` demand to reach a higher high faster. In states where cannabis is legal, many consumers prefer extracts that are almost pure THC. In fact, the impact of marijuana legalization on crime in legalized states can vary, depending on different marijuana-related laws and regulations.

For example, while Colorado (CO), Washington State (WA) and Oregon (OR) have legalized recreational marijuana, including production, possession, and sale, these three states differ in some important aspects associated with the regulation of recreational marijuana. For example, while the OC and OR allow their residents over the age of 21 to grow multiple marijuana plants for personal recreational use, in Washington State it remains illegal to grow recreational marijuana on private property for personal use. These states also differ in terms of how much marijuana concentrate people can buy — the maximum limits for CO, OR, and WA are 8g, 7g, and 5g, respectively. Given these differences in marijuana-related policies in legalized states, it`s worth expanding this line of research and examining how the legalization of recreational marijuana affects crime in states that have recently legalized marijuana, such as Oregon. In addition, previous relevant research has typically focused on a specific city or region, which may limit the generalizability of its findings (Brinkman and Mok-Lamme, 2019; Hao and Cowan, 2020; Hughes et al., 2019). It would be more instructive for policymakers and the public to look at large geographic areas within a legalized state, thus examining the impact of the legalization of recreational marijuana on the public safety of an entire state. Table 2 shows the impact of marijuana legalization on selected crime rates in Oregon using the control group of 19 non-legalized states. It turns out that the legalization of recreational marijuana in the OPERATING ROOM resulted in a significant increase in rates not only of property crime overall (p=0.021), but also of subtypes of crimes such as burglary (p=0.020) and motor vehicle theft (p=0.000) in the state, compared to non-legalized states after OR legalization. In addition, an increase that also has available evidence suggests that the legalization of adult marijuana also does not lead to an increase in crime of any strain.

In a 2018 study, scientists found „no statistically significant long-term effects of recreational cannabis laws or retail sales initiation on rates of violent or property crime.” [3] In a recent paper with regression analysis, a researcher from the University of Washington wrote: „The results suggest that the legalization of marijuana, both recreational and medical, does not increase rates of violent crime. In contrast, the legalization of marijuana could lead to a decrease in violent crimes such as murder, robbery and serious bodily harm. [4] Previous limited studies available on the subject have focused primarily on Colorado and/or Washington State – the two states that first legalized recreational marijuana in the United States. This is reasonable given that a review of a relatively longer period after legalization would be useful in uncovering the likely impact of legalization on these public safety outcome variables, such as crime rates and clearance rates. Given that after Colorado and Washington state, more and more states have been legalized and some of them have also implemented their recreational marijuana laws for several years, it is now necessary to expand the investigation to other states. For example, while six years have passed since Oregon`s Recreational Marijuana Act (RML) passed in late 2014, it`s hard to find studies that examine how legalization has affected crime in that state. Government-released data, academic research, and the experiences of many law enforcement officials suggest that marijuana policy reform does not increase crime rates. Based on statistics from the FBI`s Uniform Crime Reports, peer-reviewed studies analyzed changes following the passage of adult legalization and medical marijuana laws. Contrary to the claims of some opponents of legalization, there is no convincing basis for asserting that the legalization of marijuana and the establishment of regulated markets harm public safety. Cannabis advocates often argue that the drug may not be as neurotoxic as studies suggest, as otherwise Western countries would have experienced an increase in population-wide psychosis alongside an increase in marijuana use. In reality, in the United States, it is impossible to closely monitor cases of psychosis.

The government carefully tracks diseases such as cancer with central registries, but there is no such system for schizophrenia or other serious mental illnesses. (19. July 2021) – The Colorado Division of Criminal Justice`s Bureau of Research and Statistics released the latest report, „Impacts on Marijuana Legalization in Colorado,” which includes data on marijuana-related topics such as crime, impaired driving, hospitalizations, emergency room visits, rates of consumption, impact on adolescents, etc.