Talk:Effects of legalized cannabis/Archives/2020/February

Creation
I started this page as a way to compile effects of the switch from illegal to legal by region Victor Grigas (talk) 19:16, 29 October 2016 (UTC)

More research here...
https://www.aaafoundation.org/impaired-driving-and-cannabis

Victor Grigas (talk) 23:24, 6 November 2016 (UTC)

Some Critiques
Hi, I came about this article and wanted to offer a few simple improvements. I plan to make some contributions to the article in the near future, but these are some of my thoughts for now

Lead
I think an important improvement we can make is the lead. It is too short, and will be expandable once we add more information to the page itself.

Availability of Sources and Citations
While some sections seem to be cited throughout, the Colorado section lacks citations in the entire second paragraph.

Hello, just an anonymous Wikipedia editor here. Is there any reason to leave an entire paragraph of text in the Colorado section that is completely unsubstantiated? Shouldn't this be removed until it can be properly cited? - AWE — Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.99.109.199 (talk) 17:47, 20 April 2018 (UTC)

Reliability & Diversity of Sources
Overall, the sources used seem to be reliable. Two sources that I am not sure pass as entirely reliable is a Christian Science Monitor article (citation 5) and an opinionated piece by the Huffington Post (citation 3). The latter should be balanced by other arguments about the costs and benefits of cannabis legalization and its relation to crime rates. This can be done by 1) pointing to the arguments of specific, notable opponents of legalization, and 2) reviewing the academic literature in a way that neutrally presents what research has been done around the topic, without extrapolation or unnecessary analysis. In general, the page could use more academic sources as opposed to mostly journalistic sources.

Another thing that needs to be addressed is partly a problem with the whole page, which is that many of the "effects" are not necessarily directly caused by marijuana legalization. Instead, these are at best correlated with legalization. Either the whole premise needs to be changed for the page, or people need to be much more strict about what counts as an effect. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lorenzodow (talk • contribs) 12:54, 9 November 2018 (UTC)

Structure & Organization
I think the regional categories are a great idea, as research is usually done on a regional basis and allows for comparative thinking about the issue. I think the page could also benefit from another section that breaks down the effects of cannabis legalization by general category: economic, political, public health, etc. Research is often done along these lines, so this might be an easy way to report on the different costs and benefits. Of course, there will be overlap between the categories.

Overall, I see a lot of potential for this article. It would be great to get more Wikipedians involved in this project. Cheers. --Tmarom1997 (talk) 00:11, 8 November 2017 (UTC)

Seems useful to add evidence on traffic fatalities
Especially considering this recently published paper https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ecin.12751 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.176.24.82 (talk) 08:31, 27 January 2019 (UTC)

Short Critique
More "Effects of legalized cannabis"

After looking over the article I noticed that the article can include other effects such employment, usage across ages, arrest rates, etc. after the legalization of cannabis. Essentially, the article is missing major details on how legalizing cannabis is affecting society in the places were it is legalized.

Also, maybe include this data into the Colorado section from the Colorado Department of Revenue so that the reader can see the official data from the state. (https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/revenue/colorado-marijuana-tax-data)

Organization

Organization wise, if the article can have subsections under each state such as the effects of legalization on the state's economy, health, employment, etc. it would be easier for the reader to find what they are looking for in the article.

Adding other states

I would personally like to see the article maybe just focus on the effects of legalized cannabis in the United States since you already have good amount of sources being used for that region. With that being said, adding other states such as California that have recently legalized recreational use for cannabis can also be included into the article.

Effects before legalization?

Although I know this article is being catered towards the effects 'after' cannabis is legalized but I also think its important to include data/information from before it was legalized. This will let the reader know what was going on in the region before it was legalized. --Davidespi321 (talk) 02:20, 8 February 2019 (UTC)

more from can
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/08/health/recreational-marijuana-laws-teens-study/index.html?no-st=1568303472

Victor Grigas (talk) 15:54, 12 September 2019 (UTC)