Even Colorado Police Now Admit the Sky Isn’t Falling After State Fully Legalized Cannabis

Carey Wedler
Activist Post

A year after Colorado became the first state to legalize cannabis for both legal and recreational use, even the police say “the sky isn’t falling.”

This in no way means the cops are entirely backing off of weed. But in an interview with Denver police, Canadian news organization, CBC, learned that the prohibition rhetoric preached by politicians and Drug Warriors is largely false. One cop said,

We found there hasn’t been much of a change of anything. Basically, officers aren’t seeing much of a change in how they do police work.

Crime — from intoxicated driving to property crime and violent crime — were all dropping prior to Amendment 64, which legalized marijuana. Even adolescent drug use was down. And now that weed is legal? The trends are continuing (some claim crime is up by 7%, but even these claims cannot attribute it directly to marijuana).

Colorado has expanded its tourism industry and grossed nearly a billion dollars from legalization, with the state netting $60 million in tax revenue. This, however, is not enough to placate some of the prohibition movement’s staunchest supporters.

Colorado governor, John Hickenlooper, believes legalizing was “reckless”; and Denver mayor, Michael B. Hancock, is against the move, as well (nevertheless, he is enjoying spending tax revenue on new city programs).

The federal government, which still views cannabis as a dangerous Schedule I drug, is also making it difficult for legal, recreational marijuana. The IRS is attempting to put weed shops out of business by using a 1980s’ Drug War tax code while banks are limited in their ability to process “drug money.”

Nevertheless, some Colorado police — often the biggest proponents of keeping drugs illegal — are willing to admit that legalizing weed did not set off the apocalypse. This is an indication that the end (of the Drug War) is near.

Carey Wedler writes for TheAntiMedia.org, where this first appeared. Tune-in to The Anti-Media radio show Monday-Friday @ 11pm EST, 8pm PST. Image credit: wikimedia.org