Legalizing cannabis will help police solve more violent crime cases, the latest Oregon study says

While many people like to argue that legalizing cannabis leads to more crime, the opposite has been found, and there are studies to support it.

The latest study was in Oregon, where cannabis has been legal since 2014. The study, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy in November 2021, looked at investigating crime reports in the state from 2007 to 2017. It showed that police were more successful in solving violent crimes after legalization.

“Legalization can help create an environment that has a positive impact on the performance of police officers in solving serious crimes,” the study says. In addition, the researchers found that “the overall clearance rate for violent crimes and grievous bodily harm in Oregon counties has increased significantly compared to non-legalized states after legalization.”

Clearance rates, which relates to the number of times a crime has been solved and someone arrested for it, actually increase after cannabis is legalized.

“Current evidence suggests that legalization has brought some demonstrable and sustained benefits in clearance rates, benefits that we believe are tied to the prediction of proponents of marijuana legalization that legalization would have a positive impact on police performance “Conclude the researchers.

Commenting on the results of the study, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armetano commented: “These conclusions reinforce the notion that states can regulate the use and sale of cannabis by adults in a way that does not compromise public safety.”

“Also, in some cases, legalization can help create an environment that is beneficial to police officers’ performance in solving serious crimes,” added Armetano.

In a similar study in Colorado and Washington, researchers found the same results, although they are still confused as to why this is happening, despite the hypothesis suggesting cannabis legalization. “Although our results cannot explain exactly why police clearance rates have increased in Colorado and Washington, we believe the argument that legalization actually had a measurable impact on clearance rates is plausible,” the researchers explain. “Our models show no negative effects of legalization and instead show that the clearance rates for at least some types of crime are increasing faster in states that have been legalized than in those that have not.”

Legalization is preferred by most of Americans

Annual polls continue to show overwhelming support for American legalization of cannabis, and this year was no different. A poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports that asked 1,000 American citizens if they were in favor of “national marijuana legalization” and found that 62% of them agree. The results showed that 54% of Republicans are in favor of legalization, while 68% of Democrats said the same thing and 62% said they had other political connections.

Meanwhile, 53% of respondents said they already lived in a state with legal marijuana, and 38% didn’t. In addition, 50% said they had smoked cannabis and 45% did not.

The latest Gallup poll also found that 68% of American adults said they support cannabis legalization. They got the same results in their last poll in November 2020, despite the fact that it was the highest support for legalization since 1969.

Given these statistics, it is not surprising that legalizing cannabis would not lead to an increase in violent crime, but would do the opposite.

“Our state’s efforts to regulate the sale of marijuana are successful. A few years ago, the illegal marijuana trade filled criminals’ pockets everywhere. Now, in our state, illicit trafficking is being replaced by a tightly regulated marijuana industry that pays hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. This frees up significant law enforcement resources to protect our communities in other, more urgent ways, ”said Washington State Governor Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

There are numerous reports and studies by governments, academics and other law enforcement agencies showing that legalizing cannabis has no effect on the crime rate, and in some cases even reduces it. A 2018 study found that “there was no statistically significant long-term impact of recreational cannabis laws or retail sales initiation on violent or property crime”.

Legalizing cannabis has great benefits for the judicial system

Attitudes toward cannabis legalization are expected to continue to improve over the next few years. Eventually, more and more people are discovering that cannabis is indeed a useful substance because of its health and psychological properties, and more people are learning from it every day.

Legalizing cannabis would benefit the judicial system in several ways, and it is time people stopped jailing for cannabis crimes. Economic costs are skyrocketing: Data suggests that anywhere from $ 600,000,000 to $ 3,000,000,000 is used to arrest adult cannabis users alone. Certainly, all of that taxpayers money could go elsewhere, such as upgrading police equipment and a pay raise for police officers. On top of that, the whole process of arresting a person and then detaining them results in the cops being taken off the streets for a much longer period of time while they might actually be on the lookout for real criminals.

The US criminal justice system currently needs major reforms. While cannabis legalization will also come with its own risks, the damage caused by the war on drugs simply pales in comparison.

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