Witnessing the incredible output of Colombian drug makers is a highlight of the Netflix series Narcos. It boggles the mind trying to fathom how much cocaine Pablo Escobar and rival crews carried across American borders. And when it comes to drugs America has long provided a captive and willing market… be they pharmaceuticals or illicit substances.
Even today, with medical marijuana laws (MML) in twenty-nine states (and DC) and recreational cannabis in eight, the black market is worth $6 billion to our southern neighbors. Mexican growers and exporters are still responsible for a sizable portion of illegal marijuana; regions involved in that trade experience higher crime rates in the quest of getting high. That’s the synopsis of a forthcoming study in The Economic Journal on the effects of medical marijuana on criminal activity. The conclusion? Legalize it, at least medically.
This comes at a time when as recently as May our Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, asked Congress to revoke protections on states that allow medical marijuana. In it he cites the “significant negative health effects,” which include “psychosis,” “IQ loss,” and “addiction,” all of which are either ridiculous or provide scant evidence. Sessions must have missed the data revealing states with opioid usage is going down in MML states.
Sessions has long felt like a throwback to a more ignorant time, especially, in this case, as a cheerleader for Nancy Reagan. This comes through in sentiments such as America being
In the midst of a historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime.
Only the opposite is true. The authors—Evelina Gavrilova, Takuma Kamada, and Floris Zoutman—have found that medical marijuana businesses act as a buffer against drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), resulting in lower crime rates:
MMLs allow local production of marijuana within the US and…
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