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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMarijuana to blame for much of the city's (NYC) spike in homicides so far this year
Marijuana is to blame for much of the city's spike in homicides and shootings during the beginning of this year, causing the NYPD to examine a few select precincts as largely responsible for the increases, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Monday.
There were 54 homicides for the first two months of the year, a 20% increase from the same time last year, according to NYPD statistics. More than 70% of homicides were the result of a shooting.
And many of these homicides, NYPD officials said, were marijuana-related "rip-offs."
http://www.amny.com/news/marijuana-to-blame-for-many-of-the-city-s-spike-in-homicides-so-far-this-year-1.10001032
ghostsinthemachine
(3,569 posts)Actually in reading this and re jerking my knee I gotta say, Well ya know I almost got killed and know four people who have been killed over pot, so that is true. He is not saying that it causes murder, but that it's illegality and underground economy causes the murders, just like it was during prohibition( at least that is what I am hearing)
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Legalization & regulation could go a long way toward cleaning this up. However, those policies would be detrimental to the police, the prosecutors, and the prisons. As well as all the other complications we know about.
ghostsinthemachine
(3,569 posts)Legalization and guess what? This stops happening.
libodem
(19,288 posts)And hit you in the nose?
I have black eye from my knee jerk reaction and bruises from falling out of my chair.
Lots of injury accidents are caused by misunderstanding it seems.
freeplessinseattle
(3,508 posts)OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)that is the cause for these shootings.
Well, that and it's easier to get a gun than a dime bag.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)And for your next magical trick?
NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)If the people were able to buy it in a store, there'd be no rip offs and therefore no shootings from the above mentioned rip offs.
FrodosPet
(5,169 posts)Just like cigarettes in New York, if the legal product is expensive from taxes, then the illegal market will still be significant.
https://www.vice.com/read/i-spent-a-day-with-a-guy-selling-illegal-cigarettes-on-the-streets-of-nyc-1023
October 23, 2014
by Solange Uwimana
It's a cloudy and cool September morning on Staten Island when I make my way to Bay Street looking for someone to sell me illegal cigarettes. I don't smoke, but ever since Eric Garner's haunting death here a few months ago after the police approached him for selling "loosies"-individual, untaxed cigarettes-I've wanted to know how easy it is to find someone who will sell me illegal smokes on the street.
~ snip ~
Lato is unhurried and nonchalant as he sells Newps to a dozen or so people on the street in the hour we stand there talking. Newport was the second-best selling brand of cigarettes nationwide behind Marlboro in 2013. It's also the only brand Lato is selling this morning.
~ snip ~
"Everybody on Staten know that Bay Street right here is the market for cigarettes," he tells me. "Everybody on Staten Island know if you want to pay $8 for a pack of cigarettes, go to Bay Street. Any place else is $9 and better."
That's an amazing deal in a town where the average price of a pack of smokes is somewhere around $13. I've seen them listed for as low as $11 in Harlem and as high as $15 in Midtown. Those prices include the state excise tax of $4.35, as well as the city's local tax of $1.50. That makes New York the most expensive state in which to buy cigarettes.
~ snip ~
wildbilln864
(13,382 posts)let people grow their own in their own backyards or whatever!
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)marmar
(76,982 posts)bravenak
(34,648 posts)Remember the violence during alcohol prohibition? Same shit is going on right now with other drugs. Tha site did not load for me.
ProfessorGAC
(64,422 posts)In nearly every big city, but particularly here in Chicago (bang bang).
If booze had been legal, the gangs here would have slowly evolved in size and scope. Instead in one fell swoop, the toughest, angriest and most ruthless gained control.
Just silly how anyone could not have learned this obvious lesson.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Go Vols
(5,902 posts)Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)And of course this is the NYPD who is willing to kill someone for selling a cigarette.
Iggo
(47,487 posts)DefenseLawyer
(11,101 posts)Response to DefenseLawyer (Reply #14)
Name removed Message auto-removed
Taitertots
(7,745 posts)Last edited Tue Mar 3, 2015, 09:16 PM - Edit history (1)
She/He tried to walk into my house a couple times when I had the door open to bring in groceries.
God help us if that little guy/girl starts getting baked.
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)Bunnies like to chew electrical cords too.
Taitertots
(7,745 posts)That rabbit is going to be laughing and dancing to jazz music in no time.
msongs
(67,193 posts)TheKentuckian
(24,943 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)The War on Drugs will be remembered as one of the biggest social failure ever implemented by any nation anywhere. Nothing went along with it, no rehabilitation or ways to improve drug laws. Just SMASH THEM WITH A HAMMER.
This is why we cannot have nice things.
ohnoyoudidnt
(1,858 posts)How many people where shot over illegal marijuana in Colorado and Washington so far this year? I think there's an obvious solution.
BigDemVoter
(4,149 posts)Yeah, like we're supposed to believe that somebody is going to take several bong hits and then get murderous and take off with a pistol and chainsaw!
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)WDIM
(1,662 posts)Maybe we should make money illegal people are killed for money everyday.
As everybody said above this type of violence is a direct result of prohibition. People will still be robbed for it when it is legal but no more so than money.