The police commissioner in New York, Bill Bratton, thinks the slight increase in homicides in New York is because of legalized marijuana in Colorado. Seriously:

At a news conference Monday, New York Police Department commissioner Bill Bratton blamed a slight uptick in violence in the city (45 homicides at this point last year, versus 54 this year) on marijuana. “The seemingly innocent drug that’s been legalized around the country. In this city, people are killing each other over marijuana more so than anything that we had to deal with [in the] 80s and 90s with heroin and cocaine . . . In some instances, it’s a causal factor. But it’s an influence in almost everything that we do here.” Hyperbole at its finest. Even if this year’s uptick holds through December (and it’s worth noting that we’re only dealing with eight weeks of data, here), New York would end the year with 383 murders. The city saw 2,245 murders in 1990.

Yes, a drug which chills you the hell out, grown in a state well over a 1,500 miles away from you, is causing a slight uptick in homicides. Glad we have a crack detective like Bill Bratton heading up the NY police department.

One can only wonder why crime where pot is completely legal has gone down:

Homicides dropped 24 percent in Denver last year, the first full year of legalization in Colorado. Robberies were down 3 percent. Burglary was down 9.5 percent. The only crimes that increased significantly were larceny (a property crime, not a violent crime) and arson, which seems unlikely to be related to marijuana. Overall, violent crime dropped 0.7 percent, and property crime dropped 2 percent.

So let’s take Bratton at his word (which is pretty ridiculous). Let’s say that people are killing each other over an enjoyable, virtually harmless illegal substance that’s actually pretty easy to get, especially in higher crime areas, and that its legality more than half the country away is causing violent crime to increase specifically in New York. What is the solution? Maybe if they made this substance less scarce, thus removing the compulsion to kill over it (which, frankly, is not really happening)? Then maybe New York could enjoy some of that sweet income that Colorado is experiencing, and the crime rate would go down.

But oh, that’s right. We can’t make it legal because it’s a drug, and that word is scary.