{"id":1030,"date":"2012-12-04T08:22:57","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T08:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/?p=20466"},"modified":"2012-12-04T08:22:57","modified_gmt":"2012-12-04T08:22:57","slug":"marijuana-decriminalization-has-immediate-impact-on-california-youth-crime-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/marijuana-decriminalization-has-immediate-impact-on-california-youth-crime-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Marijuana Decriminalization Has Immediate Impact On California Youth Crime Rates"},"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\/marijuana-decriminalization-has-immediate-impact-on-california-youth-crime-rates\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"200\" height=\"155\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/teen-crime.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"teen crime\" title=\"teen crime\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-20467\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/news-and-articles\/marijuana-decriminalization-has-immediate-impact-on-california-youth-crime-rates\/attachment\/teen-crime\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-20467\" title=\"teen crime\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/teen-crime-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>The unnecessary arrests of our teens is one of the most troubling byproducts of American marijuana law.\u00a0\u00a0 Besides the high economic cost, the social implications can ruin lives.\u00a0 Marijuana possession arrests can provide an early entrance into legal system for juveniles.\u00a0 Incarceration of so many young people produces a<\/p>\n<p>The need to alter America\u2019s direction in the war on drugs has been apparent almost since the inception of Nixon\u2019s plan.\u00a0 This is perhaps why even as early as the 1970s states started to take the initiative and enact decriminalization laws.\u00a0 Decades later, we are still awaiting federal action, but it only takes a brief glance at the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/112th_United_States_Congress\" target=\"_blank\">112<sup>th<\/sup> Congress <\/a>(who has passed the least amount of bills in history) to lose optimism.\u00a0 Hopefully the 113<sup>th<\/sup> Congress is less bitter, partisan, and ineffective.\u00a0 It is not desirable for state lawmakers to enact legislation that is in direct opposition to state law, but a lack of movement on the federal government\u2019s part has left states with few options.<\/p>\n<p>Critics and misguided fans of the war on drugs are always skeptical of decriminalization and often argue that crime and deviant behavior would increase and run rampant.\u00a0 Newly published research by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cjcj.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Center on Juvenile &amp; Criminal Justice<\/a> paints an entirely different picture.\u00a0 The group found that California\u2019s new (which took effect January 1, 2011) decriminalization laws have resulted in a drastic reduction of juvenile arrests. The 20% overall drop now brings juvenile crime rates to their lowest levels since California started keeping such records in 1954.\u00a0 When analyzing the numbers further, it is interesting to note that underage violent crime dropped by 16%, homicide dropped by 26%, and drug related crimes plummeted by 50%.<\/p>\n<p>Marijuana reform can address many pressing issues in the United States.\u00a0 Although many critics are unable to understand the complexity of modern economics, financial actions are rarely isolated.\u00a0 Locking away our youth has a devastating toll on lives, but also a hefty financial price tag.\u00a0 Lately, the point has been made countless times but the debate regarding the so called \u201cfiscal cliff\u201d and the money required to rebuild the areas devastated by Hurricane Sandy, it is clear we no longer have money to waste on acting \u201ctough\u201d on drugs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"200\" height=\"155\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/teen-crime.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"teen crime\" title=\"teen crime\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-20467\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/news-and-articles\/marijuana-decriminalization-has-immediate-impact-on-california-youth-crime-rates\/attachment\/teen-crime\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-20467\" title=\"teen crime\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/teen-crime-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>The unnecessary arrests of our teens is one of the most troubling byproducts of American marijuana law.\u00a0\u00a0 Besides the high economic cost, the social implications can ruin lives.\u00a0 Marijuana possession arrests can provide an early entrance into legal system for juveniles.\u00a0 Incarceration of so many young people produces a<\/p>\n<p>The need to alter America\u2019s direction in the war on drugs has been apparent almost since the inception of Nixon\u2019s plan.\u00a0 This is perhaps why even as early as the 1970s states started to take the initiative and enact decriminalization laws.\u00a0 Decades later, we are still awaiting federal action, but it only takes a brief glance at the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/112th_United_States_Congress\" target=\"_blank\">112<sup>th<\/sup> Congress <\/a>(who has passed the least amount of bills in history) to lose optimism.\u00a0 Hopefully the 113<sup>th<\/sup> Congress is less bitter, partisan, and ineffective.\u00a0 It is not desirable for state lawmakers to enact legislation that is in direct opposition to state law, but a lack of movement on the federal government\u2019s part has left states with few options.<\/p>\n<p>Critics and misguided fans of the war on drugs are always skeptical of decriminalization and often argue that crime and deviant behavior would increase and run rampant.\u00a0 Newly published research by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cjcj.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Center on Juvenile &amp; Criminal Justice<\/a> paints an entirely different picture.\u00a0 The group found that California\u2019s new (which took effect January 1, 2011) decriminalization laws have resulted in a drastic reduction of juvenile arrests. The 20% overall drop now brings juvenile crime rates to their lowest levels since California started keeping such records in 1954.\u00a0 When analyzing the numbers further, it is interesting to note that underage violent crime dropped by 16%, homicide dropped by 26%, and drug related crimes plummeted by 50%.<\/p>\n<p>Marijuana reform can address many pressing issues in the United States.\u00a0 Although many critics are unable to understand the complexity of modern economics, financial actions are rarely isolated.\u00a0 Locking away our youth has a devastating toll on lives, but also a hefty financial price tag.\u00a0 Lately, the point has been made countless times but the debate regarding the so called \u201cfiscal cliff\u201d and the money required to rebuild the areas devastated by Hurricane Sandy, it is clear we no longer have money to waste on acting \u201ctough\u201d on drugs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[974,45,52,975,119,65,957,739,976,56,9,51,70,977,1,3,422,74,61],"tags":[3545,2628,2632,3546,2697,2644,3528,3312,3547,2636,2631,5,3548,3000,2652,6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030"}],"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=1030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}