Another Study Finds Dispensaries do not Impact Area Crime

Despite the factors that would lead one to believe that medical marijuana dispensaries breed lawbreaking, yet another study raised questions with regards to the link between crime and the establishments, the L.A. Times reports.

Nancy Kepple and Bridget Freisthler from UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs published a study in the July issue of Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. The pair studied Sacramento in 2009, mapping all 40 dispensaries in the city.

While traditional factors — such as unemployment, commercial zoning and a high proportion of young adults — correlated with higher crime rates, pot shops did not. Kepple and Freisthler seem to not want to believe the findings of their own data.

They stated: "the density of medical marijuana dispensaries may not be associated with neighborhood-level crime rates."

This is not the first time a report with findings contrary to the conventional wisdom that medical marijuana shops equal rampant crime. A report drafted by the RAND Corporation, a think tank that tackles issues as far ranging as international policy, retracted a report that studied Los Angeles dispensaries in Oct. 2011 with similar conclusions.

Like all wars, one of the casualties in the drug war is truth.