A new study finds that legalizing cannabis helps reduce crime rates. The study found that previous research into crime rates and legalization has been flawed due to the fact they were based on FBI data which collects voluntary reports from police departments. The researchers found police departments often aren’t submitting these reports, which affects the results.

“The program requests every police agency in the U.S. voluntarily report criminal offenses on a monthly basis to the FBI. Since there are no consequences for noncompliance, however, a significant number of reports are not submitted,” the study states. “To make matters worse, the FBI does not distinguish these missing values from true zeros in the UCR data. Hence, the missing data problem is severe and has significant potential to influence the inferences drawn from any policy analysis that uses this data.”

The study found that not only does legalization reduce crime rates, but it especially reduces crime rates in border states where there is cartel activity. That’s an important finding considering the fact it may help bolster the case that states near the border would benefit from legalizing cannabis.

Carly Wolf, state policies manager at NORML, told Cannabis News Box that studies have consistently shown legalizing cannabis does not increase crime rates.

“This makes logical sense considering that in places where cannabis use and sales are not regulated by the government, the market is controlled by untaxed, sometimes violent enterprises,” Wolf said. “On the other hand, a pragmatic regulatory framework that licenses production and sale of
marijuana to adults – but continues to criminalize sale to minors – best reduces the risks associated with its use and commerce. Regulation also brings tight controls and promotes accountability and transparency amongst businesses.”

The researchers found that not only does legalization reduce violent crime rates, which is what studies tend to focus on, but it reduces property
crime rates. This is something that has not been studied extensively.

“Our results indicate that [medical cannabis laws] result in significant reductions in both violent and property crime rates, with larger effects in Mexican border states,” the researchers wrote. “While these results for violent crime rates are consistent with previously reported evidence … we are the first paper to report such an effect on property crime as well.”

Studies like this help make the case that there are more positive effects of legalizing cannabis than negative effects, which may convince the public and lawmakers to get behind legalizing cannabis.