Memorandum 16-036 Marijuana Legalization Impacts

MEMORANDUM 16-036

DATE: February 16, 2016

TO: Katie Koester, City Manager

FROM: Mark Robl, Chief of Police

SUBJECT: Marijuana Legalization Impacts

Last week you requested that I research the possible impacts of the legalization of marijuana for the council’s consideration. Based on meetings and various presentations I have attended I have some knowledge of the subject but I do not have any firm statistical data to present. I spoke with and emailed public safety agencies in Colorado and Washington, requesting arrest and contact data for marijuana related offenses both pre and post legalization. I have also tried to obtain data relating to the impact of legalization on juveniles. To date; I have not yet received any replies to my inquiries.

This is one subject where internet searches can be counted on to result in erroneous and corrupted results. There are dozens and dozens of internet sites proclaiming to be presenting the real facts and honest data relating to legalization. Close examination reveals the information to be at best a misinterpretation of crime statistics and in some cases simply concocted information. I attended a presentation by a captain from the Washington State Patrol last year. He warned our group about the vast amount of false data on the internet relating to marijuana. I think if we are going to base any decisions on realized statistics, the statistics need to come from a reliable source. Another important factor to consider is the relative newness of legalized marijuana to the scene. After just one year of legalization, can we blame legalization for any increase in crime rates? Normal crime statistic studies generally require five years of data before any causation factors are considered to be relevant.

Based on a presentation I attended at the crime conference last spring, Denver Police statistics show that the crime rate is up almost 7% post legalization. This is a summation across all crime types, about 35 in all. They showed drug violations to be up 20% and public use violations to be up 237%. Many statistical comparisons that would be very interesting to know do not exist because the categories were not tracked prior to legalization. Officials from Denver and Washington State both reported an increase in the amount of use by juveniles but no statistics were provided. Both also reported that the required security at licensed facilities seemed to be a deterrence to crime but they have experienced robberies and burglaries at all types of marijuana related businesses. Our local marijuana social club has been burglarized once, about two weeks ago.