Pubdate: Sun, 03 Jan 2016 Source: Denver Post (CO) Copyright: 2016 The Denver Post Corp Contact: http://www.denverpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122 Author: John Barton Re: "Cannabis in Colorado; Two years after legalization," Dec. 27-30 news series. Drawing Conclusions (or Not) on Colo. Pot Legalization Professor Mark A.R. Kleiman states there are no conclusions available about how legalized marijuana in Colorado is going. Actually, there are a large number of conclusions about how it is going: A thriving new industry has been created, with more than $1 billion in annual revenue. Colorado has received significants amount of tax revenue, most to be used to improve or build schools. There has been no meaningful increase in crime or traffic fatalities. Police officers have more time to pursue serious crimes instead of wasting time and resources on cannabis. Arrests for cannabis are down dramatically, unclogging our court systems. Tens of thousands of patients have received much-needed relief from pain, nausea, sleeplessness and other maladies. Tourists are coming to Colorado in record numbers, increasing each year since legalization. Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems that any objective analysis regarding the first two years of legal cannabis in Colorado would conclude that it has, in fact, been a major success. John Barton Denver - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom