William Stash Jones
Oregon Cannabis Connection

July 26, 2017 – The Colorado 4th Judicial District Attorney, Dan May said on Tuesday he is convinced that cannabis is a gateway to homicide and that the Colorado marijuana system is “terrible.” The comments came during a press conference related to the indictments of thirteen individuals in an illicit marijuana operation that was taken down earlier this year.

According to the indictment, the Hoppz Cropz headshop was offering cannabis for reimbursement. They would disguise the sale by “giving away” cannabis if the customer purchased a product with a highly inflated price, like a lighter. Just one of their stores was alleged to have sold over 129 pounds of cannabis in ten months, between July 2016 and April 2017. Some of the charges included distribution, racketeering, and tax evasion.

The Colorado Attorney General spoke at the news conference, stating, “It’s a delicate balance to be a law enforcement and to deal with a product, a commodity, that was illegal one day and legal the next,” Coffman said. “It is a challenge for all of us.”

But, then the Attorney for the 4th judicial district opened his mouth, and out spilled the most reefer madness statement uttered in Colorado in a long while.

“Colorado Springs Police Department put out this year we had 22 homicides in Colorado Springs last year, 2016. Eight of those were directly marijuana.” explained May. “That isn’t somebody just using marijuana, that is somebody being murdered over legal marijuana grow in their house. Murdered over an illegal marijuana grow.”

“Marijuana is the gateway drug to homicide in our community and across our state, and people need to start recognizing that,” He added.

“Marijuana is pouring out of Colorado,” May said. “It’s much more valuable in the streets of New York City than it is in the streets of Denver. Colorado’s system is terrible.”

The Southern Colorado Cannabis Council published a statement dispelling the link to marijuana and homicide. Part of the statement, which was published on their Facebook page:

“Study after study has shown that there is no correlation between cannabis use and violent crime. We would ask the District Attorney to retract his statement or provide proof of correlation between the two. This is an extremely dangerous statement. It is dangerous to Colorado’s fastest growing industry and it is dangerous to anyone associated with cannabis Colorado.”

If District Attorney May had any sense at all, he would realize that the supposed violence that is sometimes associated with the cannabis “industry” is only happening in rare occasions, to illicit operations, and it happens only because of decades of prohibition and the black market, which is still alive in well in a tightly regulated state like Colorado. Prohibiting the plant more would only increase its value to violent criminals. The solution is to stop the madness and treat it like the herb it is.

Law enforcement officials like Dan May represent the true evil of prohibition with such reefer madness statements and lies. Colorado needs a new attorney for their 4th judicial district, that much is clear.

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