According to new data on traffic stops in the states of Colorado and Washington, traffic searches have went down a lot. Both Colorado and Washington have legalized marijuana recreation-ally.
Open Policing Project at Stanford University has found that traffic searches declined sharply in these states after analyzing the public data of over 100 million traffic stops and searches since the year 2015.
The study’s authors stated, “After marijuana use was legalized, Colorado and Washington saw dramatic drops in search rates. That’s because many searches are drug-related. Take away marijuana as a crime and searches go down.”
The analysis also found that in both states, the traffic searches of black, white, and Hispanic drivers, all fell dramatically after marijuana was legalized. In states where marijuana still remains illegal, the study didn’t see the same pattern.
