Closing medical marijuana dispensaries raises crime, says RAND Corp report

[Bozita]

Source: Grand Rapids Press

Closing medical marijuana dispensaries raises crime, says report
Published: Monday, September 26, 2011, 11:30 AM Updated: Monday, September 26, 2011, 11:56 AM
By Shandra Martinez | The Grand Rapids Press


Medical marijuana dispensaries around the state shut their doors last month after a three-judge panel of the Michigan Courts of Appeal ruled they were not only a “public nuisance,” but illegal under the 2008 citizen-initiated law that doesn’t allow for the sale of the drug.

But the closing of these businesses may do more harm than good, according to new research by California think tank.

The recent report by Santa Monica-based RAND Corp studied the issue in Southern California, where dispensaries were almost as common as convenience stores. It found that when hundreds of those medical marijuana dispensaries were forced to close in Los Angeles last year, crime rates rose 59 percent in nearby neighborhoods.

That flies in the face of what law enforcement agencies have long argued: dispensaries are magnets for thieves because of the large amounts of cash and marijuana that flow through the businesses.

Read more: http://www.mlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/09/closing_medical_marijuana_disp.html

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Law enforcement agencies are addicted to those drug forfeiture laws.

Period.

[Metta]

1. Duh.

It's all about the ignorance and fear stoking.

[Webster Green]

3. Ha!

Great minds.........

[Webster Green]

2. Duh!

Idiots!

Legalize drugs! (all of them) :think:

[RKP5637]

4. No SH**! This country seems determined to fuel the black market and crime as much as possible. n/t

[Kolesar]

5. So, we can drug the criminals and incapacitate them?

Elsewise, what is the mechanism that would affect the crime rate? Do marijuana users have to steal to buy higher priced street-weed? Are the dispensaries cheaper?

edit to add this
CBS news article:

Researchers looked at crime reports for 600 dispensaries in Los Angeles County — 170 that remained open and 430 ordered to close. They found that the further away from the clinics the less crime there was: within six blocks of a closed dispensary crime rose by 25 percent and by 10 blocks there was no perceptible change in crime.

The study said some of the factor for the increase may be because the storefronts had security cameras and guards, there was less foot traffic and fewer police patrols.

The city attorney's office called the study "deeply flawed."

"It relies exclusively upon faulty assumptions, conjecture, irrelevant data, untested measurement and incomplete results. The conclusions are therefore highly suspect and unreliable," the city attorney's office said in a statement.

Councilman Ed Reyes called the report an "eye-opener" but said it was limited in its findings because it was conducted over a short period of time.

"I think the study needs to continue because it's a snapshot," Reyes said. "It verifies how complex this issue is."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/21/national/main20109486.shtml