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The would-be thieves – captured on surveillance video at the Colorado Springs medical-marijuana dispensary they were trying to burglarize – made for a fitting symbol of the connection between dispensaries and crime.
Prevented by locked doors in front of them from getting what they came for and prevented by locked doors behind them from getting away, they were stuck in the muddled middle.
With a calendar year of data now available, local law enforcement officials face a similar predicament.
Crimes connected to medical marijuana have undoubtedly increased since the beginning of Colorado's cannabis boom.
Robbers target the expanded number of people legally growing marijuana. Burglars break into dispensaries that didn't exist 18 months ago. Police have publicly linked incidents of violence and even a homicide to medical marijuana.
"Across the state, we're seeing an increase in crime related to dispensaries," said Ernie Martinez, a Denver police detective who is president of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association. "And that's just the crime that's being reported to us."
But so far, there is no statistical evidence that medical-marijuana businesses have made neighborhoods less safe overall.
A Denver police analysis completed late last year of areas around dispensaries showed that the number of crimes in those pockets dropped in the first nine months of 2010 compared with the same period in 2009. The drop, 8.2 percent, was marginally less than the city's overall drop in crime of 8.8 percent, according to police.
Meanwhile, a Denver Post analysis of crimes committed in the first 11 months of 2010 found that some Denver neighborhoods with the highest concentration of dispensaries per capita saw a bigger decrease in crimes than did some neighborhoods with no dispensaries.
What these numbers mean, though, and whether dispensaries have played any role in the changes is unclear.
"It's not like I have seen excessive reports" involving violence linked to medical marijuana, said Steve Fox, director of public affairs for the National Cannabis Industry Association. "It's no different from any normal business. You always will have robberies and break-ins where someone believes there are valuables."
Dispensaries as targets
Indeed, the value of the product seems to drive most of the crimes reported around medical marijuana. The would-be burglars in Colorado Springs – who in November bumblingly locked themselves inside a dispensary until cops arrived – are perhaps the most famous example of a dispensary-related crime in Colorado.
Dozens of other dispensary burglaries or attempted burglaries have been reported across the state.
Other crimes have been more menacing. Two New Castle men were arrested in early October on suspicion of severely beating a woman whom they accused of stealing a medical- marijuana plant from them.
In September, Grand Junction police arrested Joseph Doremus on suspicion of shooting at another man because, the victim said, he owed Doremus $250 for medical marijuana, police said.
And one year ago, police arrested a man on suspicion of killing a Denver medical-marijuana grower during a deal-turned-robbery.
Based on incidents like these, Martinez concludes that dispensaries aren't making neighborhoods safer.
"It's not taking away the underground empire of criminality," Martinez said of medical marijuana's legitimization.
One factor among many
Sgt. Steve Noblitt, a Colorado Springs police spokesman, said comparing neighborhood crime pre- and post-dispensary is complicated. Because crime rates fluctuate all the time for many reasons, what should police departments use as a baseline for assessing dispensaries' impact?
"We haven't done an analysis," Noblitt said, "because we don't know what to compare it to."
The 46 medical-marijuana-related burglaries Colorado Springs police responded to between January 2009 and November were a small fraction of the total burglaries police handled in that time. The only crime at a business near a Colorado Springs dispensary that police can definitively tie to the dispensary, he said, was an incident in which burglars busted into an adjacent building to dig into the dispensary next door.
In two of Denver's most dispensary-dense neighborhoods, community activists say they haven't seen much change since the pot shops moved in.
"I haven't sensed any outrageous behavior at all," said Catherine Sandy, president of the Overland Park Neighborhood Association.
In the Ballpark neighborhood near Coors Field, the situation is the same, said neighborhood association co- president Judy Schneider. The community is part of the larger Five Points statistical neighborhood, which has 15 dispensaries, the most of any neighborhood in Denver.
"What I think it is," Schneider said, "is that people are running their businesses well."
Dan Brennan, the Wheat Ridge police chief and president of the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police, said police have also had to deal with problems from small, at-home medical-marijuana operations. There have been home-invasion robberies, burglaries and a fire started by bad wiring in a marijuana-growing room.
But when it comes to what it all means, Brennan is a little like the burglars in Colorado Springs: stuck in the muddle.
"We're still so early into this," Brennan said. "I don't know that we have a total picture of what this really looks like."
News Hawk: MedicalNeed 420 MAGAZINE
Source: denverpost.com
Author: John Ingold and Nancy Lofholm
Contact: Contact Us - The Denver Post
Copyright: 2011 denverpost.com
Website:Medical-marijuana dispensaries' effect on crime unclear - The Denver Post
Prevented by locked doors in front of them from getting what they came for and prevented by locked doors behind them from getting away, they were stuck in the muddled middle.
With a calendar year of data now available, local law enforcement officials face a similar predicament.
Crimes connected to medical marijuana have undoubtedly increased since the beginning of Colorado's cannabis boom.
Robbers target the expanded number of people legally growing marijuana. Burglars break into dispensaries that didn't exist 18 months ago. Police have publicly linked incidents of violence and even a homicide to medical marijuana.
"Across the state, we're seeing an increase in crime related to dispensaries," said Ernie Martinez, a Denver police detective who is president of the Colorado Drug Investigators Association. "And that's just the crime that's being reported to us."
But so far, there is no statistical evidence that medical-marijuana businesses have made neighborhoods less safe overall.
A Denver police analysis completed late last year of areas around dispensaries showed that the number of crimes in those pockets dropped in the first nine months of 2010 compared with the same period in 2009. The drop, 8.2 percent, was marginally less than the city's overall drop in crime of 8.8 percent, according to police.
Meanwhile, a Denver Post analysis of crimes committed in the first 11 months of 2010 found that some Denver neighborhoods with the highest concentration of dispensaries per capita saw a bigger decrease in crimes than did some neighborhoods with no dispensaries.
What these numbers mean, though, and whether dispensaries have played any role in the changes is unclear.
"It's not like I have seen excessive reports" involving violence linked to medical marijuana, said Steve Fox, director of public affairs for the National Cannabis Industry Association. "It's no different from any normal business. You always will have robberies and break-ins where someone believes there are valuables."
Dispensaries as targets
Indeed, the value of the product seems to drive most of the crimes reported around medical marijuana. The would-be burglars in Colorado Springs – who in November bumblingly locked themselves inside a dispensary until cops arrived – are perhaps the most famous example of a dispensary-related crime in Colorado.
Dozens of other dispensary burglaries or attempted burglaries have been reported across the state.
Other crimes have been more menacing. Two New Castle men were arrested in early October on suspicion of severely beating a woman whom they accused of stealing a medical- marijuana plant from them.
In September, Grand Junction police arrested Joseph Doremus on suspicion of shooting at another man because, the victim said, he owed Doremus $250 for medical marijuana, police said.
And one year ago, police arrested a man on suspicion of killing a Denver medical-marijuana grower during a deal-turned-robbery.
Based on incidents like these, Martinez concludes that dispensaries aren't making neighborhoods safer.
"It's not taking away the underground empire of criminality," Martinez said of medical marijuana's legitimization.
One factor among many
Sgt. Steve Noblitt, a Colorado Springs police spokesman, said comparing neighborhood crime pre- and post-dispensary is complicated. Because crime rates fluctuate all the time for many reasons, what should police departments use as a baseline for assessing dispensaries' impact?
"We haven't done an analysis," Noblitt said, "because we don't know what to compare it to."
The 46 medical-marijuana-related burglaries Colorado Springs police responded to between January 2009 and November were a small fraction of the total burglaries police handled in that time. The only crime at a business near a Colorado Springs dispensary that police can definitively tie to the dispensary, he said, was an incident in which burglars busted into an adjacent building to dig into the dispensary next door.
In two of Denver's most dispensary-dense neighborhoods, community activists say they haven't seen much change since the pot shops moved in.
"I haven't sensed any outrageous behavior at all," said Catherine Sandy, president of the Overland Park Neighborhood Association.
In the Ballpark neighborhood near Coors Field, the situation is the same, said neighborhood association co- president Judy Schneider. The community is part of the larger Five Points statistical neighborhood, which has 15 dispensaries, the most of any neighborhood in Denver.
"What I think it is," Schneider said, "is that people are running their businesses well."
Dan Brennan, the Wheat Ridge police chief and president of the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police, said police have also had to deal with problems from small, at-home medical-marijuana operations. There have been home-invasion robberies, burglaries and a fire started by bad wiring in a marijuana-growing room.
But when it comes to what it all means, Brennan is a little like the burglars in Colorado Springs: stuck in the muddle.
"We're still so early into this," Brennan said. "I don't know that we have a total picture of what this really looks like."
News Hawk: MedicalNeed 420 MAGAZINE
Source: denverpost.com
Author: John Ingold and Nancy Lofholm
Contact: Contact Us - The Denver Post
Copyright: 2011 denverpost.com
Website:Medical-marijuana dispensaries' effect on crime unclear - The Denver Post
