What effect did Colorado’s legalization of recreational marijuana in 2012 have on homelessness here?
It’s a question that’s been asked, in one form or another, by longtime Coloradans, new transplants, police officers, social service providers, and everyone in between in recent years as recreational marijuana dispensaries have popped up around the state.
There isn’t much data to give a good answer. And that lack of clarity has led to speculation that masses of people experiencing homelessness, sometimes called “urban travelers,” have moved to Denver solely to get stoned.
But experts told the Denver City Council last week that while anecdotal stories may support that theory, existing data, while problematic, doesn’t. Donald Burnes, executive director of the University of Denver’s Burnes Center on Poverty and Homelessness, pointed to the most recent annual survey of the metro area’s homeless population. Read the rest of the story at Colorado Public Radio
