US Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently penned an opinion article in the Washington Post. He wrote that the illegal drug business generates violence and violent crime. True enough.
He further noted that violent crime is down by half since the War on Drugs peaked in 1991. Again, this is true.
Then he noted that as marijuana laws and federal sentencing guidelines have been relaxed, violent crime rates have increased. He noted that “In 2015, the United States suffered the largest single-year increase in the overall violent crime rate since 1991.” That is also true, but it is highly misleading, to say the least. It is like claiming that you have never dealt with the Russians only to find out that you have dealt with the Russians on several occasions and then used a semantic trick to prevent yourself from going to jail.
The violent crime rate in 1996 was 637 per 100,000 of population. In 2015, the violent crime rate was 373, a decrease of over 40%. Over this period there were a few years of small increases, but most years saw noteworthy declines. In 2014 there were 1.15 million violent crimes and in 2015 there were 1.20 million violent crimes in the United States. That moved the violent crime rate from 361.6 in 2014 to 372.6 in 2015, or an increase of 11 violent crimes per 100,000 population, or an increase of 3% in the violent crime rate.
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Trump said it's up to the state you live in. I just got my card. Washington COMPOST doesn't tell the full story.
ReplyDeleteExcuse me if I don't listen to a man who was too racist for the 80's..
ReplyDeleteIf we put everyone in solitary confinement we could get the crime rate to 0%! I guess I'm an idealist for even contemplating such a perfect world.
ReplyDeleteIt is also true that the minority population has greatly increased of the same period of time as well as the number of recipients of government benefits plus a nearly decade long recession. There is no direct correlation between the relaxing of laws on marijuana and increased crime. No other drugs have been made a civil infraction or totally legal in any state.
ReplyDeleteTo follow Sessions' logic, one might instead link the crime increase to immigration, or the lack of parking spaces in Rehoboth Beach.
ReplyDeleteOh yea, everybody knows that when a person partakes of marijuana they immediately have an intense desire to get into a fight or attack someone. Yea, everybody who has never smoked marijuana knows that. They also become very aggressive drivers and violate the speed laws often while driving. And they get all hyped up on the tremendous energy rush, and just generally want to be noticed by everybody including becoming loud, obnoxious, and irritating. They lose sleep, lose their appetite, and lose their desire to have sex. Everybody who doesn't smoke marijuana knows all of these things.
ReplyDeleteJeff Sessions,
Why don't you try some marijuana and then tell us what you think of the violent crime statistics as they relate to marijuana laws.