Colorado making so much money from drugs they don't know what to do with it all!

[Tgo01]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-10020466.html

Colorado's marijuana experiment has been an empirically rousing success thus far, with crime down and tourism up, and now the state has collected so much money in tax from sales of pot that it might be legally obliged to give some back.

The state constitution puts a cap on the amount of tax money that can be taken in before some has to be returned, meaning Coloradans could see a share of the $50 million generated by sales of recreational cannabis.

It's such an uncommon situation that both Democrats and Republicans are in agreement on it - both insist that there is no point in returning the money to taxpayers, not something you usually hear the GOP saying.
420 festival: Cannabis Cup celebrations in Denver, Colorado

"I think it's appropriate that we keep the money for marijuana that the voters said that we should," said Republican Senate President Bill Cadman.

"This is a little bit of a different animal. There's a struggle on this one," added Sen. Kevin Grantham, one of the Republican budget writers.

Coloradans may be asked to vote on making marijuana exempt from the tax cap - the money instead being ploughed into more drug education and police training to spot stoned drivers, as marijuana legalisation is designed to pay for itself without dipping into general taxes.

Last month, a Denver police chief confirmed that a year after legalisation "everything is fine", crime has continued to drop and police are going about their business as usual.

Okay, whatever about the tax money they are generating. What's up with every story I read about this being "Crime rates in Colorado are down! DOWN!!!!"

I'm all in favor of legalizing marijuana but aren't we being kind of silly with attributing supposed drops in crime with the legalization of marijuana? Are we just going to link everything positive since the legalization with marijuana to the legalization of marijuana? If student test scores start improving next year is that because of the legalization of marijuana? What if unemployment goes down? Legalization of marijuana? Someone in Colorado struck it rich and was the Powerball winner? Legalization of marijuana, of course!

We need someone who is good at math and can make graphs and shit explain this to us.

[Jeril]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-10020466.html



Okay, whatever about the tax money they are generating. What's up with every story I read about this being "Crime rates in Colorado are down! DOWN!!!!"

I'm all in favor of legalizing marijuana but aren't we being kind of silly with attributing supposed drops in crime with the legalization of marijuana? Are we just going to link everything positive since the legalization with marijuana to the legalization of marijuana? If student test scores start improving next year is that because of the legalization of marijuana? What if unemployment goes down? Legalization of marijuana? Someone in Colorado struck it rich and was the Powerball winner? Legalization of marijuana, of course!

We need someone who is good at math and can make graphs and shit explain this to us.

So, in other words you just want pretty pictures.

[Gelston]

Thanks, Obama.

[Tgo01]

So, in other words you just want pretty pictures.

Yes, dammit!

Thanks, Obama.

No, dammit!

[waywardgs]

Nobody predicted test scores would rise. People were predicting a drop in crime. That's why it's relevant.

[crb]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-10020466.html



Okay, whatever about the tax money they are generating. What's up with every story I read about this being "Crime rates in Colorado are down! DOWN!!!!"

I'm all in favor of legalizing marijuana but aren't we being kind of silly with attributing supposed drops in crime with the legalization of marijuana? Are we just going to link everything positive since the legalization with marijuana to the legalization of marijuana? If student test scores start improving next year is that because of the legalization of marijuana? What if unemployment goes down? Legalization of marijuana? Someone in Colorado struck it rich and was the Powerball winner? Legalization of marijuana, of course!

We need someone who is good at math and can make graphs and shit explain this to us.

There is actually a reasonable direct correlation. For instance, the end of prohibition saw a decrease in organized crime activity. Why? They lost their major money maker. It isn't a random attribution. When violent street gangs and drug cartels that sell marijuana suddenly lose their customers, they pack up and move elsewhere. Some may try switching to other drugs, but the market for other drugs is not as strong as the market for weed.

[Thondalar]

When people do things that are illegal and get caught doing it, we call that "crime".

When something illegal becomes legal, it's no longer a crime to do it.

If you arrested 100 people last year for marijuana-related offenses and 0 people this year, Crime has declined.

The math is pretty simple.

[Latrinsorm]

Attributing cause is hard. One easy way to rule out causation is if the cause comes after the effect, though. Colorado's violent crime rate has been in decline since 2008 while it's property crime has been roughly constant since 2009 (ibid). As such, violent crime rate going down in 2014 tells us nothing, because it was already going down. A change in property crime (in either direction) could tell us something. I haven't found any state-wide data for 2014, though, and the article in the OP's ultimate source is an unnamed Denver police officer stating "We found there hasn't been much of a change of anything," which is not much of an empirical case.

There is actually a reasonable direct correlation. For instance, the end of prohibition saw a decrease in organized crime activity.

Source?

[Androidpk]

Crime goes down for marijuana? What a dirty slut!

[Warriorbird]

Source?

When there are literally less crimes (which people were convicted of performing) there is less crime.