Colorado’s anticipated marijuana report details youth usage, driving and crime over the last 5 years

October 26, 2018 blogger Colorado News, Latest News, marijuana, marijuana crime, marijuana grows, marijuana in Colorado, Marijuana News, Marijuana social use, Medicial Marijuana, News, Stop Smoking Marijuana, Stop Smoking Pot, weed, withdrawal

Five years after Colorado legalized marijuana, young people are not smoking more pot than they used to, organized crime is on the rise and it’s a mixed bag as to whether legal weed has led to more dangerous driving conditions.

Those are some of the highlights from a much-anticipated baseline report on the impacts of marijuana legalization released Friday by the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice. The data provide glimpses for the first time into how legalization has impacted several highly charged subjects, including usage among young people, crime, health and driving impairment.

For the most part, industry participants saw the report as favorable for the state’s legalization efforts because it did not identify any glaring issues or unearth major surprises.

Andrew Freedman, who served as Colorado’s first “marijuana czar” and now is a consultant for other governments considering legalization, called the five-year study “the most even-handed report out there.”

The most troubling trend, Freedman said, is the driving while high.

“I think more than anything we need to combat that perception about driving while high,” he said. “Just because you’re driving slowly on the highway doesn’t mean it’s safe.”

Pot advocates found the report encouraging.

Kristi Kelly, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group, found public safety trends going in the right direction, saying the statistics show pot is not proving to cause more crime as many feared. She acknowledged that bad actors are a problem, but said as a whole the legal industry wants to follow state law and cooperate with enforcement.

“It really stood out to me how marijuana legalization can have a positive effect on public safety,” Kelly said.

Still, the report drew criticism from the anti-marijuana crowd.

While the report did not find an increase in pot-use among young people, Diane Carlson of Smart Colorado, a group that battles commercialization because of the drug’s effects on youth, warned that the high THC levels in recreational marijuana still present a danger to children.

“Official state data raises concerns that Colorado youth are being exposed to much more potent marijuana products, which can harm their developing brains,” Carlson said in an emailed statement.

This report — which also includes data on marijuana-related topics such as crime, hospitalizations and ER visits, usage rates and more — is the end product of a 2013 bill passed by the state legislature to study the impacts of marijuana legalization. Analysts gathered data from a range of sources, including the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the Colorado Hospital Association and the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center.

“This is exactly the kind of data collection we need to inform our regulatory and law enforcement framework,” Gov. John Hickenlooper said in a news release. “We now have that ever-critical baseline from which we can spot trends so Colorado’s leaders understand where our efforts are succeeding and identify areas where we need to focus additional research, resources or even new policy.”