Not to say we're advocating the legalisation of weed or anything but... it's pretty much a no brainer; as anyone whose ever smoked a bit of green in their day will tell you, chances are, you won't be committing any crimes while stoned, bar maybe ruining that diet* you started say... this morning. *Does that count as a crime?
Government data released earlier this week reveals that yup, that is indeed the case. Since recreational marijuana use has been legalised in Colorado, crime rates have significantly decreased.
Comparing the crime rates from January 1 to April 30 of last year to Colorado’s first four months of legal weed and data shows that city and countrywide murder rates have dropped 52.9 percent, sexual assault's fallen 13.6 percent, robbery by 4.8 percent and aggravated assault by 3.7 percent.
We previously looked at the different stages of smoking weedand can confirm they consist of a number of things, namely laughing - a lot - eating - a lot - and sleeping - a lot. Not so much murder, robbery or any of the like so it's not too surprising that crime rates have fallen so significantly. Especially when you think of the fact that police now have more time to go after criminals who are actually dangerous as opposed to just lighting up.
Oh, and the people (well, the government) have a lot more money - recreational marijuana generated almost $19 million in March 2014 alone (!).
Skeptics say the time frame of the study is too short to reach any conclusive resolutions but as they say, numbers don't lie.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.