Medical Marijuana Centers and Urban Resident\u27s Perception of Crime in their Neighborhood

Due to the ambiguity of constitutional amendments, multiple state legislations, and municipal ordinances, medical marijuana has become quite a contentious subject. Despite the fact that many Americans approve the use of medical marijuana, they are opposed to medical marijuana centers opening in their own neighborhoods. People are concerned about the element that these centers bring into their neighborhoods as a result of increased pedestrian and vehicle traffic, loitering, open display of drug usage, and the fear of organized crime; comparable to the theory of broken windows, where crime is invited into a community when the wrong element is allowed to enter. This study addressed resident perception between the presence of medical marijuana centers and perceived increased crime rates in Denver, Colorado neighborhoods. Furthermore, this project looked at whether the perception of increased crime is analogous across Denver neighborhoods of varying socio-economic status. However, after investigating further, the findings from this study discovered that the medical marijuana centers and perceived crime might be counterintuitive to what current belief is