Pubdate: Sun, 04 Aug 2013
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2013 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Vincent Carroll

BLOWING SMOKE ON CRIME

So has everyone got the scare stories out of their system? Is there 
anyone else planning to go before the Denver council and regale it 
with alarming predictions about the opening of retail marijuana 
outlets next year- and oh, by the way, why they need a bump in their 
budgets to handle the chaos?

We've had officials warn councilmembers that they must not stint on 
more funding for cops, park rangers and medical staff- and even legal 
support and planning. And while no one has yet suggested pot stores 
put undue wear on streets, maybe that's coming next.

The award for most lurid presentation to date goes hands down to 
Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, who testified Monday to a 
council committee considering a sales tax on cannabis stores.

Morrissey didn't actually have an opinion about the tax. But he did 
appear aggrieved that "no one asked me what impact [retail sales] is 
going to have on my office"- and then answered the unasked question 
by describing his "experience with medical marijuana."

"We've had 12 homicides related directly to medical marijuana," he 
said. "We've had over 100 aggravated robberies and home invasions. 
Many of you probably didn't read about the double-execution-style 
homicides that we had here in Denver where people were laid down on 
the floor and executed because they were running a medical marijuana 
outlet. ... [T]here is a lot of crime around this stuff" because 
"there are large amounts of cash sitting in people's homes, sitting 
in people's businesses."

"Nobody is talking about it and when I talk about it, nobody listens."

All right, sir, you've got our attention.

Trouble is, the DA's testimony obscured the subject by lumping 
together crimes associated, often loosely, with medical marijuana in 
general, as opposed to crimes at commercial outlets. Yet it's new 
retail outlets that will be taxed. The question is whether they will 
be crime magnets.

Based upon follow-up reporting in The Denver Post, the answer appears 
to be: probably not. Indeed, The Post found "many of the cases [the 
DA's office cited] were home invasions-not robberies of 
brick-and-mortar businesses- and it was unclear whether victims in 
the homes were legally growing and selling marijuana."

Officials also noted that one-third of crimes in Denver occur within 
1,000 feet of a marijuana dispensary-but that's a useless statistic 
given the huge area involved. What percentage of crimes occur within 
1,000 feet of a school?

And as for those 12 homicides, none of the killings later referenced 
by the DA's office (which numbered fewer than 12) occurred in a 
dispensary. It also isn't clear how many involved law-abiding 
patients or caregivers as opposed to someone dealing on the side. The 
latter have no business on the list.

Nor do two killings that Morrissey featured in his testimony 
involving a "medical marijuana provider with an AR-15"- which, by the 
way, occurred in Aurora-since the shooting was deemed self-defense. 
For that matter, an Aurora cop told a Post reporter the shooter was 
not a legal marijuana provider.

Have some dispensaries been robbed? Of course. But the relevant 
question, asked by Councilwoman Mary Beth Susman, is whether the 
legalization of medical marijuana increased violence involving drugs 
- - since "I would imagine there have been many murders around illegal 
marijuana as well."

Morrissey conceded violence in the black market, but added, "There 
were no dispensary robberies before there were dispensaries."

True, and there were no convenience store robberies before 
convenience stores, or bank robberies before banks.

Or is it only the cannabis business that is responsible for predators 
in their midst?
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom