Web MD

They analyzed crime rates in all 50 states between 1990 and 2006. During that time, 11 states legalized medical marijuana: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Using FBI data, the researchers looked at rates of murder, rape, assault, robbery, burglary, larceny and auto theft. None of these types of crimes increased in states that legalized medical marijuana, according to the study, which was published in the journal PLoS One.

“We’re cautious about saying, ‘Medical marijuana laws definitely reduce homicide.’ That’s not what we’re saying,” study author Robert Morris, an associate professor of criminology, said in a university news release.

“The main finding is that we found no increase in crime rates resulting from medical marijuana legalization,” Morris said. “In fact, we found some evidence of decreasing rates of some types of violent crime — namely homicide and assault.”

Since 2006, 20 more states and Washington, D.C., have legalized medical marijuana.

It almost goes without saying but, to date, I have yet to have a single client get stoned and beat his wife. The researchers may not have the guts to say it but I will: Stoned people don’t run around committing murders. They sit and giggle hysterically as they contemplate doorknobs or something equally inane.

Apparently, when laws are updated to reflect the values of a population (rather than trying to force a population to conform to the values of the laws,) people stop breaking laws — even some unrelated ones. That they even bothered to study this at all is nothing more than evidence of decades of miserably failed drug policy that still has tens of thousands rotting behind bars and costing all of us money…