Weed Feed: Police Solve More Crimes in States With Recreational Marijuana, Study Finds

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WEED FEED / John Ross Ferrara / Monday, July 23, 2018 @ 8:49 a.m.

Weed Feed: Police Solve More Crimes in States With Recreational Marijuana, Study Finds

Outpost file photos of past Humboldt County marijuana raids.

A new study published in the criminology journal Police Quarterly finds that cops solve more crimes in states with legalized marijuana than those without.

Researchers at the University of Washington found that police clearance rates — a statistic showing the number of crimes in an area ending in arrest divided by the total number of crimes reported — went up in Colorado and Washington states after legalization, Marijuana Moment reports.

“Our models show no negative effects of legalization and, instead, indicate that crime clearance rates for at least some types of crime are increasing faster in states that legalized than in those that did not,” the authors are quoted as writing by the Seattle Times.

Researches note in the study, that the data doesn’t officially prove marijuana legalization is the cause of the increased clearance rates, but states that marijuana legalization was the only major public policy change that occurred in either states between 2010 and 2015.

“While our results cannot specifically explain why police clearance rates have increased in Colorado and Washington, we think the argument that legalization did in fact produce a measurable impact on clearance rates is plausible,” the authors are quoted as writing by Marijuana Moment. “Our models show no negative effects of legalization and, instead, indicate that crime clearance rates for at least some types of crime are increasing faster in states that legalized than in those that did not.”

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