Anti-marijuana advocates met in Little Rock on Friday to hear from Sgt. Jim Gerhardt, a Colorado police officer who said legalization has caused major problems in his state.
The event, held at the state Chamber of Commerce and coordinated by the conservative Arkansas Family Council and law enforcement officials, focused on marijuana-related initiatives proposed for the November ballot.
Gerhardt has been a vocal opponent of pro-marijuana efforts in and beyond Colorado. Speaking from his experience with the Thornton (Colo.) Police Department and the Denver-based North Metro Drug Task Force, he urged attendees not to support legalization in Arkansas.
"In Colorado, I think we've -- for whatever reason -- become a lot more tolerant of drug activity and drug abuse in general. We've really lowered a lot of criminal penalties for all kinds of drug activity," Gerhardt said. "We're paying a big public-safety price right now because of it."
An initiative to legalize medical marijuana and a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana in Arkansas are in need of signatures to get on the November ballot. The Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act, an initiated act authored by Arkansans for Compassionate Care, needs 62,507 signatures to make it onto the ballot; The Arkansas Hemp and Cannabis Amendment needs 78,133.
To get on the ballot, an act must be signed by 8 percent of Arkansas' legal voters, while a proposed constitutional amendment needs 10 percent.
Citing anecdotal evidence, Gerhardt said legalizing both medical and recreational marijuana has caused a "tremendous problem" for Colorado police, from instances of violent crime committed by intoxicated people to dispersion of the drug to other states.
"Overall, traffic fatalities are going down, but the number of fatalities where somebody's under the influence of marijuana is up," he said. "Schools are inundated with marijuana problems. Kids are bringing these products to school. A lot of times the superintendents and school officials are having no choice but to expel kids."
But legalization advocates say Gerhardt's assertions don't hold up under scrutiny.
Gary Fults of Arkansans for Compassionate Care, the group behind the medical marijuana initiative, said Gerhardt is relying on hyperbole to sway Arkansans away from legalization.
"We actually don't agree with what [Gerhardt is] saying about Colorado because we've been to Colorado, and if what he's saying is true, Colorado would be in a meltdown mode now," Fults said.
In 2012, a similar medical marijuana initiative by Arkansans for Compassionate Care was narrowly defeated, netting 49 percent of the vote.
Robert Reed of Dennard in Van Buren County, the author of The Arkansas Hemp and Cannabis Amendment to legalize recreational marijuana, said there aren't hard statistics to show increases in marijuana-related crimes in states where the drug has been legalized.
"Absolutely no one has been able to send us those statistics and verify them," Reed said, noting some studies actually indicate a drop in violent crime since legalization.
A recent study from the Denver Police Department showed that since Colorado vendors began selling recreational marijuana Jan. 1, violent crime in the city and Denver County is down from the same period in 2013.
Gerhardt acknowledged that early data on the matter are nuanced, but he said Colorado officials are developing ways to better track drug-related crime. He said such crimes are often reported in inconsistent ways between agencies, making it hard to definitively show a correlation.
"I can't give you hard numbers," he said. "That's one of the issues that we're having is we didn't have a great data-collection methodology out there, but we're bringing together people now in law enforcement, human services, medical providers -- because everybody's seeing an impact. And what we have to do is be able to collect that data in some kind of meaningful way."
Family Council President Jerry Cox said his organization would continue advocating against marijuana legalization, medical and otherwise, through Election Day.
"We don't want to see Arkansas be the train wreck that Colorado has become with the legalization of marijuana there," Cox said. "We will obviously step our efforts to educate the people of Arkansas."
Gerhardt said he hopes states don't rush to legalization before weighing the outcomes.
"I would strongly discourage other states to not follow the path Colorado's taken. I think that the smartest thing other states can do right now is slow down a little bit and take a look at what's happening in Colorado and decide, in the end, 'Is this going to be good public policy or not?'"
Metro on 06/14/2014
