Rand Corp. think-tank retracts study on medical marijuana dispensary closings and crime rates

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

A nonprofit think tank on Monday retracted a widely reported study that linked last year’s closing of hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles to a rise in crime rates in surrounding neighborhoods.

Santa Monica-based Rand Corp. said in a statement that questions raised after the study was released last month prompted an unusual internal review.

... The study looked at crime reports for neighborhoods surrounding 600 dispensaries in the 10 days before and 10 days after Los Angeles officials shuttered the pot clinics last summer after a new ordinance went into effect. The analysis showed crime increased about 60 percent within three blocks of a closed dispensary compared with those that remained open.

... The Los Angeles city attorney’s office called the study deeply flawed and demanded the retraction. Rand pulled the study from its website earlier this month.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/rand-corp-think-tank-retracts-study-on-medical-marijuana-dispensary-closings-and-crime-rates/2011/10/24/gIQAZC2zCM_story.html

[tridim]

1. The only study that matters is that 50% of Americans want cannabis to be legal.

[Bigmack]

2. Since when has the will of the people meant anything in this country?...

... and I mean that both ways.

50% probably approved of slavery, too.

Sometimes I'm glad the majority doesn't rule... and sometimes I wish it did.

Luckily... or unluckily... the freakin' politicians don't listen to us, anyway.

[tridim]

4. The best example is the end of Alcohol prohibition.

[benEzra]

5. Yes. Crime dropped sharply when Prohibition was repealed.

I don't believe crime rose to Prohibition-era levels until the 1970s and 1980s, which is not coincidentally when Richard Nixon's "War on Drugs" neo-prohibitionism hit its stride.

[Arctic Dave]

3. Someone was taken to the woodshed for letting the cat out of the bag.

Whoops, there goes the police budget if they left them open.

[red dog 1]

6. 8 in 10 Americans Support Legalizing Medical Pot...Obama Are You Listening?

"Eight in ten Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use and nearly half favor decriminalizing the drug more generally, both far higher than a decade ago"
http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/Politics/medical-marijuana-abc-news/