According to a new study published in The Economic Journal, marijuana legalization is causing violent crime to fall in U.S. states.
Research has found that there has been a reduction in violent crimes in many states in the U.S. that border Mexico.
The study found that the rate of violent crime which includes murders, robberies, and aggravated assaults, fell 12.5% in counties that were close to the Mexico border after medical marijuana laws (MMLs) were implemented.
One of the authors of the study, Professor Evelina Gavrilova, remarked to The Independent, “MMLs allow people to grow and cultivate marijuana plants legally within the US.”
“This means that people don’t need to buy illegal marijuana anymore so drug trafficking organisations (DTOs) have far fewer customers.”
“Their namesake activity – the smuggling of illicit drugs – is known to be paired with extreme levels of violence, which DTOs use to contest the revenues in the drug market,” concluded the study.
In states that border Mexico and have adopted MMLs, robberies decreased by 19% while murders decreased by 10% and assaults decreased by 9%.
This doesn’t mean that the DTO’s won’t stop.
“It’s very likely that they are not going to simply give up on this market,” said Professor Gavrilova. “There are reports that some DTOs are starting to grow their own opium, which could be used to produce heroin that is smuggled into the US.”
“They could also enter the legal marijuana trade themselves by setting up farms in a border state.”
