IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/empeco/v69y2025i5d10.1007_s00181-025-02802-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Racial and ethnic differences in quitting when marijuana retail markets are legal: evidence from California

Author

Listed:
  • Jenny Williams

    (University of Melbourne, Department of Economics)

  • Rosalie Liccardo Pacula

    (University of Southern California)

  • Rosanna Smart

    (RAND)

Abstract

Racial and ethnic minorities are subjected to greater enforcement of marijuana laws under prohibition. This research examines whether there is a corresponding difference in their response to the introduction of legal protection of marijuana retail markets. We use California’s medical marijuana retail market as a case study. A well-established system of dispensaries operating in California before the introduction of legal protection of its medical marijuana retail market allows us to disentangle the effect of legal risk from the effect of access. Drawing on longitudinal information from the NLSY97, we find that legally protecting the medical marijuana retail market reduced quitting by racial and ethnic minorities but not non-Hispanic whites. The reduction in quitting by minorities is driven by males, and by those who had used for substantial durations. These differing responses are consistent with a higher risk of arrest for simple marijuana offenses faced by racial and ethnic minority males under prohibition. Our findings raise concerns that legal retail markets for marijuana may exacerbate existing health disparities, especially for minority males.

Suggested Citation

  • Jenny Williams & Rosalie Liccardo Pacula & Rosanna Smart, 2025. "Racial and ethnic differences in quitting when marijuana retail markets are legal: evidence from California," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 69(5), pages 2755-2781, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:empeco:v:69:y:2025:i:5:d:10.1007_s00181-025-02802-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s00181-025-02802-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00181-025-02802-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00181-025-02802-4?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

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H75 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Government: Health, Education, and Welfare
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:spr:empeco:v:69:y:2025:i:5:d:10.1007_s00181-025-02802-4. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.