Colorado’s Governor Hickenlooper, known for his “shading of the truth” when it comes to the effects of marijuana commercialization and legalization, is at it again. This time in a video published November 22nd by MicMedia, an internet news feed favored by millennials.
Hickenlooper claimed that there has been no spike in overall marijuana use, even though licensed sales of marijuana more than doubled between 2014 and 2016 (74 tons vs. 168 tons).
He claimed there has been no spike in teenage consumption, even though past month usage by 12-17 year-olds rose from 7.6 % pre-commercialization to 9.9% after commercialization and to 11.1% in the last SAMHSA report of 2014/2015.
He claimed there are fewer drug dealers even though the number of licensed retail drug dealers tripled from 2014 to 2016. Since black market dealers don’t register with anyone, there is no way of knowing whether their number has increased or decreased. But the black market is still so robust that 3.5 tons of marijuana were seized by authorities last year.
He claimed fewer kids are now going to prison which is true for white kids, not so much for minorities, where marijuana-related youth arrests for Latinos has gone up 20% since legalization and 50% for blacks.
It is clear that there is no political benefit to Hickenlooper to admit that regulation of marijuana isn’t working. But his attempts to cover up reality is disgraceful. We have documented his denials of reality in Governor Hickenlooper is in denial about pot’s effects on Colorado.