Violence in Colorado will triple in the next 5 years due to Legal Marijuana
The legal marijuana industry in Colorado is booming , many tax dollars are being made, and growth is happening at a fast pace. Even though it all seems good for Colorado there is a major downside to it all & many locals are starting to feel the side effects. Since the legalization of marijuana major companies & investors have moved into Colorado to monopolize. Their main focus of construction is the Denver metro area since it has become an attraction for thousands of people visiting the City daily because of the legal Marijuana trend. Property owners quickly caught on to the major business's and investors moving in who might want to buy from them so many have raised their prices on rent & the price of their house for sale, alongside the City of Denver raising their taxes.
Due to the price of living being raised by property owners and taxes on everyday necessities many lower class citizens are being forced into living in cheaper valued neighborhoods. The once properties that they were living in before are than turned into a place to live for a higher paying citizens. While the price of living has nearly tripled the minimum wage stays the same at just a little over $9 an hour.The cost of a 2 bedroom apartment in Denver, which use to be $500, is now close to $1600 to rent. With higher bills this is forcing people to steal to survive and do things that they normally wouldn't do like rob,murder, possibly becoming homeless themselves.
Marijuana is not expected to be legal across the USA for another 5 to 10 years and with 1000’s of people moving to Colorado weekly and everyone being forced to live in congested area’s the violence is expected to grow. The move has caused gangs to move into unknown territories causing violence with other gangs in places that didn't have issues before plus Colorado’s homeless rate has more than doubled since the legalization of Marijuana. Hundreds of out of state homeless people continue to move in from out of state and is causing trouble with local homeless natives that have been lived here for decades. A police enforcement team has even been created to prevent loitering and damages because of the nuisance.
Many believe this will be the downfall of the state and Colorado, while the rich get rich the poor get poorer. It is estimated that we will soon be ranked in the top tenth for violence among Chicago and other cities the faster we grow. Only time can tell what Colorado plans to do to prevent this from getting out of hand.
