THIS IS NOT SO according to a study by the think tank The Rand Corporation. Rand studied the crime rates for the 10 days before and after Los Angeles ordered hundreds of marijuana clinics to close. They found that, in the areas around the closed clinics, CRIME ROSE. This was especially true for breaking and entry, and assault.
Rand believes that the clinic's security caused crime to drop. I think that buying from liquor stores was, and is, a lot safer than buying from bootleggers. It follows that buying from marijuana clinics is a lot safer than buying from dealers.
You can read the study at www.rand.org.
The grand social experiment of making alcohol illegal was a failure. Prohibition of alcohol caused crime, violence, widespread refusal to obey the law, and made it profitable to form criminal gangs, some of which exist to this day. No amount of punishment could get people to obey the law against possession of alcohol. Prisons got full and criminals got wealthy beyond their dreams.
We are repeating the social experiment with marijuana.
Our drug policy is costly, ineffective in stopping drug use, and is causing a large number of normally law abiding citizens to laugh at the law.
If you do not believe me, Ken Burns has an upcoming PBS documentary on the original prohibition. Watch it, please.
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