IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v320y2023ics0277953623000357.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of recreational cannabis markets on motor vehicle accident, suicide, and opioid overdose fatalities

Author

Listed:
  • Marinello, Samantha
  • Powell, Lisa M.

Abstract

In the U.S., an increasing number of states are legalizing regulated commercial markets for recreational cannabis, which allows private industry to produce, distribute, and sell marijuana to those 21 and older. The health impacts of these markets are not fully understood. Preliminary evidence suggests recreational markets may be associated with increased use among adults, which indicates there may be downstream health impacts on outcomes related to cannabis use. Three causes of death that are linked to cannabis use are motor vehicle accidents, suicide, and opioid overdose. Drawing on data from U.S. death certificates from 2009 to 2019, we conducted a difference-in-differences analysis to estimate the impact of recreational markets on fatalities from motor vehicle accidents, suicide, and opioid overdose in seven states: Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Nevada, California, and Massachusetts. States with comprehensive medical cannabis programs with similar pre-trends in deaths were used as comparisons. For each outcome, a pooled estimate was generated with a meta-analysis using random effects models. The results revealed substantial increases in crash fatalities in Colorado, Oregon, Alaska, and California of 16%, 22%, 20%, and 14%, respectively. Based on estimates from all seven states, recreational markets were associated with a 10% increase in motor vehicle accident deaths, on average. This study found no evidence that recreational markets impacted suicides. Most states saw a relative reduction in opioid overdose death that ranged between 3 and 28%. On average, recreational markets were associated with an 11% reduction in opioid overdose fatalities.

Suggested Citation

  • Marinello, Samantha & Powell, Lisa M., 2023. "The impact of recreational cannabis markets on motor vehicle accident, suicide, and opioid overdose fatalities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:320:y:2023:i:c:s0277953623000357
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115680
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953623000357
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115680?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benjamin Hansen & Keaton Miller & Caroline Weber, 2020. "Early Evidence On Recreational Marijuana Legalization And Traffic Fatalities," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(2), pages 547-568, April.
    2. Anderson, D.M. & Rees, D.I. & Sabia, J.J., 2014. "Medical marijuana laws and suicides by gender and age," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 104(12), pages 2369-2376.
    3. Powell, David & Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo & Jacobson, Mireille, 2018. "Do medical marijuana laws reduce addictions and deaths related to pain killers?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 29-42.
    4. Nathan W. Chan & Jesse Burkhardt & Matthew Flyr, 2020. "The Effects Of Recreational Marijuana Legalization And Dispensing On Opioid Mortality," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(2), pages 589-606, April.
    5. Chelsea L. Shover & Corey S. Davis & Sanford C. Gordon & Keith Humphreys, 2019. "Association between medical cannabis laws and opioid overdose mortality has reversed over time," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116(26), pages 12624-12626, June.
    6. repec:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2017.304059_5 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Pacula, R.L. & Kilmer, B. & Wagenaar, A.C. & Chaloupka, F.J. & Caulkins, J.P., 2014. "Developing public health regulations for marijuana: Lessons from alcohol and tobacco," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 104(6), pages 1021-1028.
    8. Aydelotte, J.D. & Brown, L.H. & Luftman, K.M. & Mardock, A.L. & Teixeira, P.G.R. & Coopwood, B. & Brown, C.V.R., 2017. "Crash fatality rates after recreational marijuana legalization in Washington and Colorado," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 107(8), pages 1329-1331.
    9. Livingston, M.D. & Barnett, T.E. & Delcher, C. & Wagenaar, A.C., 2017. "Recreational cannabis legalization and opioid-related deaths in Colorado, 2000-2015," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 107(11), pages 1827-1829.
    10. repec:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2017.303848_8 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Eva Fauziah & Arthur Josias Simon Runturambi, 2023. "Pros and Cons of Medical Cannabis Legalization in Indonesia," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 45(1), pages 343-352, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Coleman Drake & Jiebing Wen & Jesse Hinde & Hefei Wen, 2021. "Recreational cannabis laws and opioid‐related emergency department visit rates," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(10), pages 2595-2605, September.
    2. Anderson, D. Mark & Rees, Daniel I., 2021. "The Public Health Effects of Legalizing Marijuana," IZA Discussion Papers 14292, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Carrieri, Vincenzo & Madio, Leonardo & Principe, Francesco, 2020. "Do-It-Yourself medicine? The impact of light cannabis liberalization on prescription drugs," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    4. Thanh Lu, 2021. "Marijuana legalization and household spending on food and alcohol," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(7), pages 1684-1696, July.
    5. Junxing Chay & Seonghoon Kim, 2022. "Heterogeneous health effects of medical marijuana legalization: Evidence from young adults in the United States," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 269-283, February.
    6. Mathur, Neil K. & Ruhm, Christopher J., 2023. "Marijuana legalization and opioid deaths," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    7. McMichael, Benjamin J. & Van Horn, R. Lawrence & Viscusi, W. Kip, 2020. "The impact of cannabis access laws on opioid prescribing," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    8. Johanna Catherine Maclean & Keshar M. Ghimire & Lauren Hersch Nicholas, 2021. "Marijuana legalization and disability claiming," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 453-469, February.
    9. Petrova, Olga & Gray, Natallia, 2021. "The effects of medical marijuana laws on birth outcomes: Evidence from early adopting U.S. states," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 68-82.
    10. d'Este, Rocco, 2022. "Scientific Advancements in Illegal Drugs Production and Institutional Responses: New Psychoactive Substances, Self-Harm, and Violence inside Prisons," IZA Discussion Papers 15248, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Borbely, Daniel & Lenhart, Otto & Norris, Jonathan & Romiti, Agnese, 2022. "Marijuana Legalization and Mental Health," IZA Discussion Papers 15729, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Chakraborty Avinandan & Doremus Jacqueline & Stith Sarah, 2021. "The effects of recreational cannabis access on labor markets: evidence from Colorado," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-86, January.
    13. Aparna Keshaviah & Eric Morris & Dara Lee Luca & Huihua Lu & Sarah Bardin & Colleen Staatz & David Jones, "undated". "Marijuana Legalization: Public Health, Safety, and Economic Factors for States to Consider," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 2244c433671741ab990a99636, Mathematica Policy Research.
    14. Chu, Yu-Wei Luke & Gershenson, Seth, 2018. "High times: The effect of medical marijuana laws on student time use," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 142-153.
    15. Christian Gunadi, 2022. "Does expanding access to cannabis affect traffic crashes? County‐level evidence from recreational marijuana dispensary sales in Colorado," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(10), pages 2244-2268, October.
    16. Lauren Hersch Nicholas & Johanna Catherine Maclean, 2019. "The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on the Health and Labor Supply of Older Adults: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(2), pages 455-480, March.
    17. Alex Hollingsworth & Coady Wing & Ashley C. Bradford, 2022. "Comparative Effects of Recreational and Medical Marijuana Laws on Drug Use among Adults and Adolescents," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(3), pages 515-554.
    18. Shyam Raman & Ashley C. Bradford, 2022. "Recreational cannabis legalizations associated with reductions in prescription drug utilization among Medicaid enrollees," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(7), pages 1513-1521, July.
    19. Chu, Yu-Wei Luke & Townsend, Wilbur, 2019. "Joint culpability: The effects of medical marijuana laws on crime," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 502-525.
    20. Sabia, Joseph J. & Nguyen, Thanh Tam, 2016. "The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on Labor Market Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 9831, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:320:y:2023:i:c:s0277953623000357. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.