Effects of Legalized Marijuana Laws on Crime Rates

Debates on legalizing of marijuana have taken toll in many of European countries as well as the United states due to emerging medical benefits in recent years (Maier et al. Cannabis has been found to treat glaucoma and prevent epilepsy. It is therefore pure hypocrisy to ban cannabis on grounds that it is harmful whereas legal drugs such as tobacco and alcohol are considered more harmful. Morris et al. (2014) argues that legalization of cannabis leads to lower crime rates sound plausible at first but according to FBI records crime rates in the state of Washington have reduced since the legalization of use of cannabis. Ammerman (2015) gives another perfect example of states that border Mexico as the states that experience high hard drugs inflow as well as increased crime rates.

However, Morris (2014) argues that the legalization laws of marijuana for medical purposes led to a significant decline in crimes bearing in mind that these states were traditionally controlled by Mexican drug cartels and organizations. Legalization of cannabis has helped reduce organized crime relating to cultivating and selling of the drug illegally. Recent statistics have shown actually this may be the situation or rather the case. According to Shepard and Blackley (2016) the legalization of marijuana in most of the states in the U. , Ryan, S. , Adelman, W. P. , & Committee on Substance Abuse. The impact of marijuana policies on youth: clinical, research, and legal update. , Schulenberg, J. , O'malley, P. M. , Galea, S. & Hasin, D. Morris, R. G. , TenEyck, M. , Barnes, J. C. Pacula, R.