In 2012, Colorado & Washington State legalized recreational cannabis use for adults, followed closely by Oregon & Alaska in 2014, and the internet & more traditional media went into a feeding frenzy. Everyone speculated on what this would mean for those states, for the US as a whole, and, perhaps, for the rest of the world.
Smokers who lived in decidedly illegal areas of the world watched closely. Would success mean that legal weed without a medical card could soon be coming to a corner shop near them? We could all only hope!
Advocates of legalization claimed that making marijuana legal for all adults and even allowing people to grow their own would solve all kinds of problems. In addition to eliminating a nanny-state view on herb and allowing anyone over 21 to think for themselves, their pros included decreasing crime, increasing tax revenue and economic growth, improving public health and decreasing traffic problems.
Of course, critics said almost the reverse would happen. Naysayers predicted even more crime, an economic downfall as undisciplined smokers chose weed over work, increased health problems including addiction, and more traffic fatalities due to impaired drivers.
Recreational weed has only been legal for four years in Colorado & Washington and two years in Alaska & Oregon, so the stats that we looked at may not be final, but so far, neither side was completely right. It looks like legalization didn’t really have much of an effect at all – other than Colorado’s epic tax revenues.
Eleven more states will be voting to legalize recreational cannabis in November 2011, so this is a great time to take a closer look at exactly what happened.
The History of Legal Weed in the US
Did you know that marijuana was legal in every single state and on a federal level in the US until 1913? Ironically, California was the first to outlaw herb in 1913, followed closely by Utah in 1914. By 1930, 30 states had made this natural plant illegal, but the federal government had not yet had their say.
In 1937, the federal government put an excise tax on pot that basically made it illegal because no one would be able to afford a legal product. Then, in 1956, the feds quit farting around and made it illegal, in all 50 states, without exceptions. To make things even more confusing, individual states started to back off and decriminalize cannabis starting in 1973.
Confused yet?
The Legalization Timeline in Four States
Now, let’s take a look at what happened by year in Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Then see if you notice the same thing we did. There were no major changes in anything important at or after legalization for one simple reason: the people who were going to smoke weed had been smoking it all along.
Colorado
- 1975 – decriminalized possession of under an ounce
- 2000 – legalized medical marijuana
- 2009 – 41,000 licensed patients and 900 dispensaries
- 2012 – legalized recreational cannabis for 21+
- 2014 – first recreational dispensaries opened their doors
- 1971 – decriminalized possession of under 40 grams
- 1998 – legalized medical marijuana
- 2009 – 35,500 patients with prescriptions & hundreds of dispensaries
- 2012 – legalized recreational cannabis for 21+
- 2014 – first recreational dispensaries opened their doors
Oregon
- 1993 – decriminalized possession of under an ounce
- 1998 – legalized medical marijuana
- 2014 – legalized recreational cannabis for 21+
- 2016 – 67,000 registered medical users & 426 dispensaries
Alaska
- 1972 – a court ruling said that home use of marijuana was constitutional
- 1975 – decriminalized up to an ounce in public or any amount in your home
- 1982 – eliminated the $100 fine for less than an ounce in public
- 1990 – criminalized all marijuana possession, even in your own home
- 1998 – legalized medical marijuana
- 2014 – legalized recreational cannabis for 21+
In almost every case, the legalization of both medical and recreational marijuana included sensible provisions that allowed residents to grow small numbers of marijuana plants for personal use. To stay legal but still have enough cured bud, many home growers try to maximize yield per plant so that they don’t exceed these arbitrary limits.
What Changed with Legalization?
As we hinted at before, not much. Let’s take a quick look at each hotly debated category:
Alcohol & Drug Use – No Significant Changes
In all four states, marijuana use was already showing a slight upward trend before 2009 that continued through 2012 with only minor differences between the four states. Cocaine, on the other hand, showed a slight decrease in use. In Colorado and Alaska, there was no measurable change in how many minors smoked pot. Youth usage numbers were not available for Washington or Oregon.
Marijuana Prices – Holding Steady
There was a big worry that legal weed would make the price drop like a rock, but it hasn’t. The fear was that cheap prices would encourage out-of-control pot smoking and diversion into the black market as would-be dealers came to legal areas to buy then travel to bordering states to sell. That has not happened.
Prices declined slightly leading up to legalization but have held steady since. Top quality buds average about $230 an ounce with mids selling at $200. In Oregon, prices actually went up slightly after cannabis became legal.
Health Problems & Suicide Rates – Not Much Change Here
Unfortunately, suicide rates have been slowly climbing in all four states since 1999, but there was no noticeable change in that increase either way since the new laws were passed. On a more positive note, hospitalizations for cannabis and alcohol use have dropped since legalization after a very short increase as everyone celebrated victory. Some, obviously, celebrated a little too much.
Crime Rates – Move Along, Nothing to See Here
Advocates of legalization felt that eliminating illegal drug activity would drastically reduce crime rates. Critics warned that people would get high and do all kinds of things. Neither were correct.
In Denver, both violent crimes and crimes against property have been fairly constant since 2009 with no big upticks or decreases for any reason. In Seattle, crime rates have been dropping little by little since 1996 with only a slight uptick with legalization in 2014. Since then, they have dropped again and nothing got out of hand when cannabis shops opened a year later. It’s just more of the same old, same old in Oregon & Washington.
If you add in traffic accidents and fatalities, there were no big changes in that category either, until you get to Alaska. That state did show a slight but insignificant decrease.
Expulsion Rates in the Schools
Even though legal recreational cannabis is strictly for users above 21 years of age, critics warned that, like alcohol, pot would find its way into the hands of local youth. That could be true in some cases, but expulsion rates in Colorado and test scores in Washington don’t show any type of problem due to legalization.
In Colorado, both total and drug-related expulsion rates did increase slightly in 2014 about the time legalization passed. Then, the numbers dropped back to former rates and stayed there even as dispensaries started making recreational sales. In fact, total expulsions today are lower than they were in 2005. On a similar note, Washington State has shown no change in standardized test scores since 2007, and they’re higher than they were in 2002.
Economic Impacts – Big Increases in Colorado Tax Revenues, Little Change Elsewhere
We’ve all read about the crazy amount of taxes that Colorado has already raked in and how much they think they’ll receive by the end of this year, but other than that, there’s little change. Housing prices in all four legal states are on the climb, but they’re right in line with national averages that include states that are far from 420-friendly.
Unemployment rates are fairly steady with only very slight decreases from 2009 until today. Colorado showed the biggest decline, probably because they received the most media coverage and the most tourism, but even that isn’t anything to write home about.
To conclude, legalizing recreation cannabis was a good thing, simply because it is the right thing to do for both common sense and compassionate reasons. However, it has not resulted in the big changes that were predicted, either for good or for bad. Now that we can all see that the world won’t come to an end just because someone can legally buy a joint or some dabs at the corner shoppe, maybe more states and countries will legalize. We can only hope – and vote!
