(The Coloradoan) Marijuana-related arrests in Fort Collins have remained flat the past five years despite a rise of medical-marijuana dispensaries in the past two years.
Police say marijuana use has increased, but ease of access to medical-marijuana licenses has resulted in more users’ legal protection.
About 296 people are arrested each year for illicit sales, possession or production of the drug, and the total hasn’t changed by more than three for any of the past five years.
This “ease of access to medical marijuana licences [sic]” involves a person going to their doctor(s), requesting copies of their medical records, taking them to a specialty clinic, having them reviewed for proof of a legally qualifying condition, going to the state, and giving them your name and address. Colorado ain’t California. It ain’t just walking into a tent, saying, “I can’t sleep”, getting a signature, and walking into a dispensary.
If this increased use if due to “more users’ legal protection”, then you’re conceding the point that the increase is not “illicit sales, possession, or production” or marijuana, aren’t you?
Cops have been trying to say that these Fort Collins dispensaries are increasing the black market trade and that’s why voters need Question 300′s opportunity to shut down all dispensaries. But if the black market (read: not medical) use went up, how is it you’re not arresting any more of them than before the dispensaries existed?
The cop spoken to in this story even said that if the dispensaries were closed, use of marijuana would decrease. As if the patients in Fort Collins who’ve discovered cannabis is their best medical choice would suddenly stop using it and not (a) drive to another town to get it, (b) grow it themselves, (c) buy it from a guy who’s growing it himself, (d) return to the black market to buy it… the very black market you’re trying to reduce!
When will they understand that a legal market in cannabis is the black marketeer’s worst nightmare?
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The detractors will not understand its importance to the sick until they realize the chemicals they take are making them sicker, and marijuana can help many condition. Fear is Terrible thing and that is what drives so many decisions.
“When will they understand that a legal market in cannabis is the black marketeer’s worst nightmare?”
Just as soon as their salaries don’t require them to not understand it.
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