Why Having More Cannabis Dispensaries Saves Lives
Prohibitionists love to argue that cannabis is not only harmful to health, but society as well.
In this day and age, many backward thinking people still believe that the presence of cannabis dispensaries acts as temptation to the youth, and increases crime in neighborhoods.
But studies reveal the opposite is true.
In fact, the presence of cannabis dispensaries can save lives in more than one way.
Cannabis Dispensaries Cut Down Opioid Deaths
A recent study published in Economic Inquiry revealed that legal cannabis reduced opioid deaths by 21%. The researchers, hailing from the University of Massachusetts together with Colorado State University, found “particularly pronounced effects for synthetic opioids” including fentanyl.
“Our principal finding is that recreational marijuana access significantly decreases opioid mortality, with the most pronounced effects for synthetic opioids,” write the researchers. They also explain that the result “stems primarily from access via dispensaries rather than legality per se.”
There are other, older studies that back up this one: in particular, a 2014 study, shared in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal, examined 10 states with legal medical cannabis. The researchers discovered that opioid overdoses reduced some 25% in places with medical cannabis.
Crime Rates Near Dispensaries Drop
Many people, especially parents and grandparents, fear that the presence of dispensaries in their communities may be a magnet for crime.
But studies reveal that dispensaries can actually help cut down crime rates.
A new study published in the journal, Regional Science and Urban Economics, was among the first to examine the effects of legalization on neighborhood crime rates. For the study, they analyzed Denver, Colorado and found that there was a 2.3% decrease in drug crimes in neighborhoods that had at least one dispensary.
The study took place from January 2013-December 2016, since legal sales of cannabis was official from January 2013 onwards. Doing so allowed the researchers to obtain data both before and after legalization, and the study’s authors said that the results were robust because they found no evidence supporting the theory that cannabis dispensaries result in more crime.
Additionally, the researchers discovered that when they mapped locations of both recreational and medical dispensaries which were both open and closed during the time the study was going on, most dispensaries were located in low-income neighborhoods.
“The City of Denver is the clear mecca of recreational marijuana sales in Colorado,” the researchers write.
“We find that adding a dispensary to a neighborhood (of 10,000 residents) decreases changes in crime by 19 percent relative to the average monthly crime rate in a census tract,” reads the paper. “These results are robust to many alternative specifications, are unique to time periods after legalization, and diminish quickly over space.”
“The results imply that an additional dispensary in a neighborhood leads to a reduction of 17 crimes per month per 10,000 residents, which corresponds to roughly a 19 percent decline relative to the average crime rate over the sample period,” reads the paper.
The researchers are also optimistic that as legalization becomes more widespread, it will continue to have a positive impact on crime rates. “Our results are consistent with theories that predict that marijuana legalization will displace illicit criminal organizations and decrease crime through changes in security behaviors or substitution toward more harmful substances.”
It was also interesting that while there was no change in cannabis crimes, there was a decrease in drug crimes related to cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine.
“The results show no evidence supporting theories that marijuana dispensaries increase local cannabis crimes (since we do not find increases in marijuana crimes such as cultivation, possession, or sales nearby) or that dispensaries increase crimes through increased intoxication (since there is essentially no change in the number of crimes with marijuana as a ‘contributing factor’ near locations that gain dispensaries,” reads the study’s conclusion.
The Bottom Line
Cannabis does nothing to increase violent behavior or crime in people.
The poisons of society are actually alcohol and tobacco. A 2017 study found that stores that sell tobacco and alcohol actually attracts more crime.
“At 100 feet, tobacco shops and off-sale alcohol outlets – but not MMDs [medical marijuana dispensaries] – experienced significantly higher property and violent crime rates than grocery/convenient stores,” write the university researchers from California and Kansas.
“Our data suggest tobacco shops may constitute nuisance and properties associated with dangerous neighborhood conditions for crime and violence in South LA, and perhaps similar low-income urban communities of color,” it reads.
So if you want to keep your communities safe, legalize cannabis, make it easily accessible, and cut down on alcohol and tobacco shops.
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