Public Release:  Medical marijuana outlets not linked to crime

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

PISCATAWAY, NJ - Despite some concerns to the contrary, neighborhoods with medical marijuana dispensaries may not have higher crime rates than other neighborhoods--at least in one California city.


As more U.S. states have legalized the use of marijuana for medical reasons, there have been growing concerns that the dispensaries that sell the drug--and the people who go there--will become targets for crime.

"The reality is, we haven't had any evidence to support those claims," said Nancy J. Kepple, M.S.W., a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the new study.


"This conclusion suggests that we should further question whether medical marijuana dispensaries are related to crime," Kepple said.

But, she stressed, the study is far from the final word. The researchers looked at neighborhoods at only one point in time. So it's not clear whether a neighborhood's crime patterns might change over time, after more medical marijuana dispensaries are opened.

"This study is a good first step," Kepple said. "But it was not designed to address the bigger picture of how these dispensaries might be affecting neighborhoods."


Kepple said that further studies in other cities, and studies that follow crime rates over time, would help. "The more research that's done, the more complete a picture we'll have."


Does, for example, a dispensary's level of security matter? In this study, information on outlets' security measures was not incorporated. Therefore, it is not possible to tell how those might have factored in. Future studies, Kepple said, should look at whether strong security systems seem to deter crime.



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