{"id":1018,"date":"2012-06-07T07:37:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-07T07:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/?p=16733"},"modified":"2012-06-07T07:37:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-07T07:37:00","slug":"medical-marijuana-causes-crime-not-so-fast-says-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/medical-marijuana-causes-crime-not-so-fast-says-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical Marijuana Causes Crime? Not so Fast says Study"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/medical-marijuana-causes-crime-not-so-fast-says-study\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"619\" height=\"400\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/criminals.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"criminals\" title=\"criminals\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-16734\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/news-and-articles\/medical-marijuana-causes-crime-not-so-fast-says-study\/attachment\/criminals\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-16734\" title=\"criminals\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/criminals-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>One of the most popular criticisms by opponents of medical marijuana has to do with a perceived increase in local crime.\u00a0 Politicians and outraged community members frequently claim that marijuana dispensaries will increase local crime.\u00a0 Often, they seem reluctant to even accept the idea that this may not be the case even though nobody really knows the impact of dispensaries on crime as legalized marijuana is only in its infancy.<\/p>\n<p>A new study recently published shows that the presence of dispensaries does not increase crime, at least in the Sacramento area.\u00a0 The July issue of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jsad.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs <\/a>includes the results from a study conducted by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.universityofcalifornia.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">University of California<\/a> researchers.\u00a0 In Sacramento, there was no evidence that indicated that violent or property crime rose in neighborhoods with a higher concentration of marijuana dispensaries.\u00a0 Nancy Kepple, who was in charge of the research said the study was a \u201cgood first step\u201d but cautioned that \u00a0it \u201cwas not designed to address the bigger picture of how these dispensaries might be affecting neighborhoods.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While the results are encouraging more research is clearly needed in other regions.\u00a0 Could this just be a phenomenon in Sacramento or will future research produce similar results?\u00a0 It may be important to realize that criminals are everywhere and that a marijuana dispensary may not be anymore motivating than robbing a bank.\u00a0 If someone is looking for an illegal quick money grab, perhaps the type of business is not their primary motivation.\u00a0 Many businesses keep cash on hand but we have not tried to shut down or drastically limit jewelry or department stores.\u00a0 Even if future research shows that marijuana dispensaries are attracting criminal activity, there will not be a level playing field until caregivers have access to banks.\u00a0 In short, dispensaries have no other discourse other than stockpiling cash.\u00a0 Since they likely will not have the same protection of a bank vault, criminals may target a dispensary simply because they know the money cannot be placed in a bank.<\/p>\n<p>Social progression can be compared to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allaboutscience.org\/theory-of-relativity.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Albert Einstein\u2019s theory of relativity<\/a>. Though this article will not attempt to dissect the entire theory, the basic premise of Einstein\u2019s idea is that time and space are relative and not fixed.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The speed of an object will appear slower for someone already in motion as opposed to someone standing still.\u00a0 If an individual\u2019s thoughts are not progressing, but rather staying still, then new ideas will pass them by at a much higher speed than someone already moving forward.\u00a0 Opponents of reform may have a difficult time interpreting the changing world in front of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"619\" height=\"400\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/criminals.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"criminals\" title=\"criminals\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-16734\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/news-and-articles\/medical-marijuana-causes-crime-not-so-fast-says-study\/attachment\/criminals\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-16734\" title=\"criminals\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/criminals-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>One of the most popular criticisms by opponents of medical marijuana has to do with a perceived increase in local crime.\u00a0 Politicians and outraged community members frequently claim that marijuana dispensaries will increase local crime.\u00a0 Often, they seem reluctant to even accept the idea that this may not be the case even though nobody really knows the impact of dispensaries on crime as legalized marijuana is only in its infancy.<\/p>\n<p>A new study recently published shows that the presence of dispensaries does not increase crime, at least in the Sacramento area.\u00a0 The July issue of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jsad.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs <\/a>includes the results from a study conducted by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.universityofcalifornia.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">University of California<\/a> researchers.\u00a0 In Sacramento, there was no evidence that indicated that violent or property crime rose in neighborhoods with a higher concentration of marijuana dispensaries.\u00a0 Nancy Kepple, who was in charge of the research said the study was a \u201cgood first step\u201d but cautioned that \u00a0it \u201cwas not designed to address the bigger picture of how these dispensaries might be affecting neighborhoods.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While the results are encouraging more research is clearly needed in other regions.\u00a0 Could this just be a phenomenon in Sacramento or will future research produce similar results?\u00a0 It may be important to realize that criminals are everywhere and that a marijuana dispensary may not be anymore motivating than robbing a bank.\u00a0 If someone is looking for an illegal quick money grab, perhaps the type of business is not their primary motivation.\u00a0 Many businesses keep cash on hand but we have not tried to shut down or drastically limit jewelry or department stores.\u00a0 Even if future research shows that marijuana dispensaries are attracting criminal activity, there will not be a level playing field until caregivers have access to banks.\u00a0 In short, dispensaries have no other discourse other than stockpiling cash.\u00a0 Since they likely will not have the same protection of a bank vault, criminals may target a dispensary simply because they know the money cannot be placed in a bank.<\/p>\n<p>Social progression can be compared to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.allaboutscience.org\/theory-of-relativity.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Albert Einstein\u2019s theory of relativity<\/a>. Though this article will not attempt to dissect the entire theory, the basic premise of Einstein\u2019s idea is that time and space are relative and not fixed.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0The speed of an object will appear slower for someone already in motion as opposed to someone standing still.\u00a0 If an individual\u2019s thoughts are not progressing, but rather staying still, then new ideas will pass them by at a much higher speed than someone already moving forward.\u00a0 Opponents of reform may have a difficult time interpreting the changing world in front of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[751,52,851,965,179,56,9,51,70,181,1,3,966,967,61],"tags":[3324,2632,3424,3536,2757,2636,2631,5,2759,3537,3538,6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}