IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/23779.html

The Effects of Marijuana Liberalizations: Evidence from Monitoring the Future

Author

Listed:
  • Angela K. Dills
  • Sietse Goffard
  • Jeffrey Miron

Abstract

By the end of 2016, 28 states had liberalized their marijuana laws: by decriminalizing possession, by legalizing for medical purposes, or by legalizing more broadly. More states are considering such policy changes even while supporters and opponents continue to debate their impacts. Yet evidence on these liberalizations remains scarce, in part due to data limitations. We use data from Monitoring the Future’s annual surveys of high school seniors to evaluate the impact of marijuana liberalizations on marijuana use, other substance use, alcohol consumption, attitudes surrounding substance use, youth health outcomes, crime rates, and traffic accidents. These data have several advantages over those used in prior analyses. We find that marijuana liberalizations have had minimal impact on the examined outcomes. Notably, many of the outcomes predicted by critics of liberalizations, such as increases in youth drug use and youth criminal behavior, have failed to materialize in the wake of marijuana liberalizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Angela K. Dills & Sietse Goffard & Jeffrey Miron, 2017. "The Effects of Marijuana Liberalizations: Evidence from Monitoring the Future," NBER Working Papers 23779, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23779
    Note: EH LE PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w23779.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. D. Mark Anderson & Daniel I. Rees, 2014. "The Legalization of Recreational Marijuana: How Likely Is the Worst‐Case Scenario?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 221-232, January.
    2. Rosalie Liccardo Pacula & David Powell & Paul Heaton & Eric L. Sevigny, 2013. "Assessing the Effects of Medical Marijuana Laws on Marijuana and Alcohol Use: The Devil is in the Details," NBER Working Papers 19302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Rosalie L. Pacula & David Powell & Paul Heaton & Eric L. Sevigny, 2015. "Assessing the Effects of Medical Marijuana Laws on Marijuana Use: The Devil is in the Details," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 7-31, January.
    4. D. Mark Anderson & Benjamin Hansen & Daniel I. Rees, 2013. "Medical Marijuana Laws, Traffic Fatalities, and Alcohol Consumption," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(2), pages 333-369.
    5. Joseph J. Sabia & Jeffrey Swigert & Timothy Young, 2017. "The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on Body Weight," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 6-34, January.
    6. MacCoun Robert & Pacula Rosalie Liccardo & Chriqui Jamie & Harris Katherine & Reuter Peter, 2009. "Do Citizens Know Whether Their State Has Decriminalized Marijuana? Assessing the Perceptual Component of Deterrence Theory," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 347-371, June.
    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. repec:osf:socarx:drx9f_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. D. Mark Anderson & Kyutaro Matsuzawa & Joseph J. Sabia, 2020. "Cigarette Taxes and Teen Marijuana Use," NBER Working Papers 26780, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Zhang, Saijun & Lim, Younghee & Boyas, Javier F. & Burlaka, Viktor, 2020. "Family structure and youth illicit drug use, use disorder, and treatment services utilization," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    4. Hollingsworth, Alex & Wing, Coady, 2020. "Tactics for design and inference in synthetic control studies: An applied example using high-dimensional data," SocArXiv fc9xt, Center for Open Science.
    5. Kalbfuss, Jörg & Odermatt, Reto & Stutzer, Alois, 2024. "Medical marijuana laws and mental health in the United States," Health Economics, Policy and Law, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 307-322, July.
    6. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Mesnard, Alice & Perrault, Tiffanie, 2023. "Weeding out the dealers? The economics of cannabis legalization," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 62-101.
    7. Hansen, Benjamin & Miller, Keaton & Weber, Caroline, 2020. "Federalism, partial prohibition, and cross-border sales: Evidence from recreational marijuana," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    8. Dragone, Davide & Prarolo, Giovanni & Vanin, Paolo & Zanella, Giulio, 2019. "Crime and the legalization of recreational marijuana," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 488-501.
    9. repec:osf:socarx:fc9xt_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. John Gardner & Bright Osei, 2022. "Recreational marijuana legalization and admission to the foster‐care system," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(3), pages 1311-1334, July.
    11. Anderson, D. Mark & Rees, Daniel I., 2021. "The Public Health Effects of Legalizing Marijuana," IZA Discussion Papers 14292, IZA Network @ LISER.
    12. Auriol, Emmanuelle & Mesnard, Alice & Perrault, Tiffanie, 2019. "Defeating Crime? An Economic Analysis of Cannabis Legalization Policies," CEPR Discussion Papers 13814, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. 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.
    14. Anderson, D. Mark & Matsuzawa, Kyutaro & Sabia, Joseph J., 2020. "Cigarette Taxes and Teen Marijuana Use," IZA Discussion Papers 12980, IZA Network @ LISER.
    15. Angela K. Dills & Sean E. Mulholland, 2018. "Ride‐Sharing, Fatal Crashes, and Crime," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(4), pages 965-991, April.

    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. Johanna Catherine Maclean & Lauren Hersch Nicholas & Keshar M. Ghimire, 2017. "The Impact of State Medical Marijuana Laws on Social Security Disability Insurance and Workers' Compensation Benefit Claiming," Working Papers id:12111, eSocialSciences.
    2. 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.
    3. Michele Baggio & Alberto Chong & David Simon, 2018. "Sex, Drugs, and Baby Booms: Can Behavior Overcome Biology?," NBER Working Papers 25208, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Mir M. Ali & Chandler McClellan & Ryan Mutter & Daniel I. Rees, 2023. "Recreational marijuana laws and the misuse of prescription opioids: Evidence from National Survey on Drug Use and Health microdata," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 277-301, February.
    5. Joseph J. Sabia & Jeffrey Swigert & Timothy Young, 2017. "The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on Body Weight," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(1), pages 6-34, January.
    6. Raymond J. March & Veeshan Rayamajhee & Glenn L. Furton, 2022. "Cloudy with a chance of munchies: Assessing the impact of recreational marijuana legalization on obesity," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(12), pages 2609-2629, December.
    7. Baggio, Michele & Chong, Alberto & Simon, David, 2020. "Sex, marijuana and baby booms," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    8. Meinhofer, Angélica & Witman, Allison E. & Hinde, Jesse M. & Simon, Kosali, 2021. "Marijuana liberalization policies and perinatal health," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    9. Johanna Catherine Maclean & Brendan Saloner, 2019. "The Effect of Public Insurance Expansions on Substance Use Disorder Treatment: Evidence from the Affordable Care Act," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(2), pages 366-393, March.
    10. Anna Choi & Dhaval Dave & Joseph J. Sabia, 2019. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Medical Marijuana Laws and Tobacco Cigarette Use," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(3), pages 303-333, Summer.
    11. Armstrong, Michael J., 2023. "Relationships between sales of legal medical cannabis and alcohol in Canada," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 28-33.
    12. Chu, Yu-Wei Luke, 2014. "The effects of medical marijuana laws on illegal marijuana use," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 43-61.
    13. 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.
    14. Jacqueline M. Doremus & Sarah S. Stith & Jacob M. Vigil, 2020. "Off-label use of recreational cannabis: Acid reflux in Colorado," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 40(1), pages 338-348.
    15. Jenny Williams & Rosalie Liccardo Pacula & Rosanna Smart, 2019. "De Facto or De Jure? Ethnic Differences in Quit Responses to Legal Protections of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries," NBER Working Papers 25555, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    19. Sabia, Joseph J. & Nguyen, Thanh Tam, 2016. "The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on Labor Market Outcomes," IZA Discussion Papers 9831, IZA Network @ LISER.
    20. Anna Choi & Dhaval Dave & Joseph J. Sabia, 2016. "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Medical Marijuana Laws and Tobacco Use," NBER Working Papers 22554, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • K14 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law - - - Criminal Law

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:nbr:nberwo:23779. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.