Thread by @kishineff

Tonight is the City Council meeting that was delayed last week for contract talks with the Fire Protection District Board. Once again I have submitted a comment about cannabis, in advance of the Council re-examining the illegal ordinance they passed several months ago. Here is...

my comment:

"I'm sure you are quite aware that a number of your constituents want to be able to have a cannabis dispensary. Some number of folks don't have a strong opinion on the subject, while others are vehemently opposed to allowing dispensaries.

Some of those people...

pretend a city should ban cannabis because they don't like the smell. Others pretend that cannabis dispensaries will turn our city into a festering crime haven, often insulting the beautiful city to our south in the process.

To that I say: they should have more faith in...

Chief Ortiz and ACPD. But also, as you are, I'm sure, aware, Vallejo's crime rate stems directly from poverty, joblessness, the Mare Island closure and corruption in government- not only at the city level, but also in the school board.

The reality is that, while fear of an...

increase in crime may be well grounded and reasonable, tales of it actually happening aren't true. Studies actually show that having dispensaries might even bring crime down. For the remainder of my comment, I will share a snippet from an article from wayofleaf.com....

but afterword I will share a number of links to MSNBC, thecrimereport.org and other articles that demonstrate that the narrative of cannabis access creating crime is just false.

"Various news outlets have conducted investigations into crime in states with legal...

marijuana. In 2012, Colorado and Washington both legalized recreational cannabis. There were grave concerns about an increase in the crime rate. Overall, however, the state of Washington reported a 40-year low in crime statistics in 2014.

This data included reductions of 10%...

in violent crime and 13% in homicides since the legalization of weed. Colorado has also experienced an overall decline in violent and property crimes.

The rate of impaired driving has increased in both states. However, a significant proportion of those arrested had other...

drugs in their system, aside from weed. Perhaps the biggest myth that was busted related to youth exposure. The assumption was that legalization would significantly increase teenage use of marijuana.

In 2010, 20% of tenth-grade students in Washington admitted using pot. After...

legalization in 2016, the rate fell to 17%. Colorado teens also showed a slight reduction in cannabis consumption.

A study by economist Davide Dragone was published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. It focused on the difference in crime rates between the....

states of Washington and Oregon in 2013 and 2014. Recreational marijuana was legal in Washington by that stage, but illegal in neighboring Oregon.

The results were pretty eye-opening. First of all, Washington state reported a reduction in rapes and property crimes in...

2013-2014 relative to the three years before legalization. Remarkably, the study also discovered that Washington’s rape and property crime rate was lower than in Oregon in 2013 and 2014! Rapes reduced by 15-30%, and thefts fell by 10-20%. Another interesting ‘side effect’ was...

a reduction in binge alcohol drinking."

wayofleaf.com/blog/has-crime…

msnbc.com/all/does-marij…

thecrimereport.org/2020/01/10/doe…

marketwatch.com/story/heres-wh…

newsweek.com/legalizing-pot…

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