Pubdate: Thu, 05 Mar 2015
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2015 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122

NYPD: IT'S COLORADO'S FAULT

In the past few years, the debate over marijuana has occasionally 
featured pot proponents who reject any downside to the drug and 
unreformed anti-pot warriors whose views haven't advanced since the 
reefer madness propaganda of the mid-20th century.

New York Police Department commissioner Bill Bratton has now earned a 
top spot in the second category. Early this week, Bratton blamed an 
uptick in the city's murder rate this year - after two months! - in 
part to "the seemingly innocent drug that's been legalized around the 
country." He, of course, means pot.

So legal pot in Colorado and Washington states have spiked the murder 
rate in New York?

Then why hasn't the murder rate spiked upward in Colorado - or in 
Denver, which has the most pot outlets of any locale? As it happens, 
Denver had nearly three times as many murders in 2004 as in 2014.

Get a grip, chief.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom