Reports have escalated that the increasing crime rate in Denver most especially property crimes is related to legalizing marijuana stores. It can be recalled that marijuana stores have been legalized but only for medical purpose but this time, marijuana recreational stores were also legalized too.
A study was conducted to prove this and was later published in the Journal of Primary Prevention. The research showed that the widespread property crimes in Denver are due to the prevalent sales of marijuana in most stores which at first was only limited to medical purposes. Just lately, for no apparent reason, marijuana has been sold also for non-medical purposes.
Even if the results showed that crimes are not that high in areas just surrounding the marijuana stores, still the adjacent places have the higher rate of property crimes Physics Org reported. Because of this, the authors of the said study said that legalizing marijuana for sales always comes with a cost. That's why if a resident or a person's utmost concern is their health, then they need to also take note of their security more so with this issue.
Legalizing marijuana for sales in Denver is also likened to some crimes like those which usually occur in bars and restaurants that also serve alcoholic beverages. But one thing that the authors of the study also noticed was that the rate of crimes in bars is way higher than that in marijuana stores according to News Hub.
The only point here which the authors of the study want to imply is that there is a side effect of legalizing marijuana for recreational sales and purposes. Particularly, the study also takes note that the increasing number of marijuana stores is the main factor behind this. Because of this, some were also claiming that since the law was changed to include marijuana for recreational sales, there is a possibility that it directly affects the number of crimes.
With these latest reports, the authors of the study also claimed that in order to determine the relation of marijuana stores to crimes, these need to be compared to stores that offer alcohol. Further, the marijuana outlets are the one slightly responsible for the property crimes.
