UT Dallas study finds Legalized Medical Marijuana reduces Violent - A Different Kind of News.

For years we’ve been told that marijuana will lead to harder drugs and crime but UT Dallas Professor Robert Morris spent more than a year pouring over FBI crime reports spanning 17 years ending in 2006.

He said there’s never been a study like it and the results are stunning.

“The big finding– we found no increases in crime after states had passed laws for the legalization of medical marijuana,” Professor Morris said. “In fact in some of the models suggest violent crime such as assault decreased after the passing of such laws.”

Right now 20 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use. Professor Morris said one reason for the crime drop is that people switch from using alcohol to weed.

“We know plenty of research that suggests once you legalize marijuana, alcohol sales go down and that could be for the fact that there is less involvement with the criminal market and so forth or the side effects of the drug itself and there is just no involvement with crime,” Professor Morris said.

The study did not look at recreational use of marijuana and right now only Colorado and Washington state have legalized marijuana.

Even Texas Governor Rick Perry recently hinted law enforcement needs to take another look at weed.

“States should be allowed to make those decisions,” Governor Perry said. “Implement policies that start us toward decriminalization.”

Professor Morris said it’s a sign of the times.

“The demonization change over to more tolerance might be part of the reasons why that might explain a decline in crime,” Professor Morris said. “We just see greater tolerance in general and that might be playing a role with just less crime.”

Professor Morris said the study triggered a ton of emails and phone calls–even a mention in High Times magazine.

He said his research may loosen attitudes towards medical marijuana.

“There seems to be a lot of support and a lot of people are saying that they’re not surprises by the findings,” Professor Morris said. “Surprisingly I haven’t seen much of a response that is really against the findings.”

He said it will be years before enough information is available to study to study the use of weed in states where recreational use is legal.

What will that study find?

“Only time will tell,” Professor Morris said.

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UT Dallas study finds Legalized Medical Marijuana reduces Violent - A Different Kind of News.