If this were a professional wrestling event, it would be billed as The Battle of The Professor vs. The Cop. But it’s not a sporting event; it’s real life. A professor at the Colorado State University-Pueblo has challenged the Pueblo police chief to a debate over the findings of a study that found no link between legal marijuana and homelessness in the Colorado city.
According to a news report from the Pueblo Chieftain, CSU-Pueblo sociology professor Tim McGettigan has had it up to his eyeballs with Police Chief Troy Davenport over a 187-page study’s conclusion. Twenty-nine health professionals from the university worked on the report, but the city’s top cop called it “junk science.”
McGettigan, who led the study, fired back:
“The authors of the impact study stand by their research. Science is a force for good because good scientists pursue the truth wherever it leads — even (or especially!) when doing so debunks lies propagated by the powerful.
Throughout history, scientists have often been attacked by narrow-minded egotists who prefer ignorance over enlightenment. The authors of the Social Impact of Cannabis Study encourage those who are interested in this subject to read the impact study and draw their own conclusions.”
McGettigan also challenged Davenport and other unenlightened officials who take issue with the findings to a debate.
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“Anyone who would like to debate the strengths and weaknesses of the Social Impact of Cannabis Study is welcome to do so at the fast-approaching Institute of Cannabis Research Conference from April 26-28, 2018 at CSU-Pueblo,” McGettigan said. “See you in April.”
The study suggests that the homelessness problem in Pueblo is not because of cannabis legalization, but due to Black Hills Energy, a major employer in the area.
“When you have a utility kicking thousands of families out of their homes in a community where there are no more than 35,000 family homes in one year, that’s 20 percent of the homes with utilities cut off. And pushing those families out into the streets, you are definitely going to see an increase in homelessness,” McGettigan wrote in the study.
