Is Marijuana Harming Colorado

How does legalizing marijuana affect our communities? 

In this article from Yahoo.com, the statistics presented are mind blowing. How does legalizing marijuana affect crime rates? How dangerous is it?

I am not here to jump on my soapbox and either cheer or jeer for legalizing marijuana. But, I will admit that the following information in the yahoo.com article literally made me speechless.

First, a study was done from 2012-2014 in Summit county in Colorado. Its purpose was to show marijuana-related criminal offenses before and after the legalization of Cannabis after 2012.

• 2012 there was 63 total pot involved offenses
• 2013 there were 5
• 2014 there were 5

Next is the alarming information that was compiled in the U.S. that compared marijuana related deaths to other vices, such as alcohol and even guns.

• Cigarettes - 480,000 deaths per year
• Alcohol-related - 88,000
• Opioids  (prescription drugs and heroin) - 28,000
• Guns - 13,000
• Marijuana - 0

Those are pretty amazing numbers.