The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: How Extensive is the Interstate Trafficking of Recreational Marijuana?

Hansen, Benjamin; Miller, Keaton; Weber, Caroline

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3040362

Cited by 14 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…We note that other studies have found that drug arrests are generally good indicators of drug use (Chu 2015;Moffatt, Wan, and Weatherburn 2012;Rosenfeld and Decker 1999). marijuana possession likely drove at least part of the increase in arrests. Consistent with our state-level marijuana use results, Hansen, Miller, and Weber (2017) conclude that a substantial amount of marijuana sold in Washington was trafficked out of the state before Oregon legalized recreational marijuana.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 83%

The Cross‐border Spillover Effects of Recreational Marijuana Legalization

Hao

Cowan

2019

Economic Inquiry

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We examine the spillover effects of recreational marijuana legalization (RML) in Colorado and Washington on neighboring states. We find that RML causes a sharp increase in marijuana possession arrests in border counties of neighboring states relative to nonborder counties in these states. RML has no impact on juvenile marijuana possession arrests but is rather fully concentrated among adults. We find mixed results regarding the source(s) of this change. Using separate data on self‐reported marijuana use, we show that RML is accompanied by an increase in use in neighboring states relative to non‐neighboring states. However, the increase in arrests following RML is highly concentrated in a few states, which we argue is more consistent with a change in police enforcement near some state borders driving the arrest results. (JEL I12, I18, K14)

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 83%

The Cross‐border Spillover Effects of Recreational Marijuana Legalization

Hao

Cowan

2019

Economic Inquiry

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“…These results also inform optimal tax policy due to the potential externalities associated with marijuana (Hansen, Miller, and Weber 2017b). We show that it may be reasonable to question if recreational marijuana was responsible for the recent increase in traffic fatalities in Colorado and Washington.…”

Section: Policy Implications and Conclusionsupporting

confidence: 54%

“…Our primary specifications allow all states other than Washington and Colorado to enter the synthetic control. 12 However, legalization in one state may lead to substantial spillover effects in bordering states due to the opportunity for trafficking (Hansen, Miller, and Weber 2017a). In the second panel of Tables 4-6 we replicate 12.…”

Section: Robustnessmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…We follow the existing literature and media coverage by using the term "marijuana-related fatalities" while noting that "marijuana-related" does not mean " marijuana-caused. " identification with a differences-in-differences approach is hampered by state-level variation in reporting practices, regional-level variation in preferences for substance consumption, and spillover effects of legalization efforts (Hansen, Miller, and Weber 2017a)-all of which make choosing an appropriate control group a priori difficult (Romano et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early Evidence on Recreational Marijuana Legalization and Traffic Fatalities

2018

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Over the last few years, marijuana has become legally available for recreational use to roughly a quarter of Americans. Policy makers have long expressed concerns about the substantial external costs of alcohol, and similar costs could come with the liberalization of marijuana policy. Indeed, the fraction of fatal accidents in which at least one driver tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol has increased nationwide by an average of 10% from 2013 to 2016. For Colorado and Washington, both of which legalized marijuana in 2014, these increases were 92% and 28%, respectively. However, identifying a causal effect is difficult due to the presence of significant confounding factors. We test for a causal effect of marijuana legalization on traffic fatalities in Colorado and Washington with a synthetic control approach using records on fatal traffic accidents from 2000 to 2016. We find the synthetic control groups saw similar changes in marijuana‐related, alcohol‐related, and overall traffic fatality rates despite not legalizing recreational marijuana. (JEL K42, I12, I18)

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“…9 Our principal finding is that recreational marijuana access significantly decreases opioid mortality, with the most pronounced effects for Synthetic Opioids ( Table 5. 8. Other researchers have used a synthetic control approach to address issues of selection (Hansen, Miller, and Weber 2018a). 9.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Recreational Marijuana Legalization and Dispensing on Opioid Mortality

2019

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This study documents how the changing legal status of marijuana has impacted mortality in the United States over the past two decades. We use a difference‐in‐difference approach to estimate the effect of medical marijuana laws (MML) and recreational marijuana laws (RML) on fatalities from opioid overdoses, and we find that marijuana access induces sharp reductions in opioid mortality rates. Our research corroborates prior findings on MMLs and offers the first causal estimates of RML impacts on opioid mortality to date, the latter of which is particularly important given that RMLs are far more expansive in scope and reach than MMLs. In our preferred econometric specification, we estimate that RMLs reduce annual opioid mortality in the range of 20%–35%, with particularly pronounced effects for synthetic opioids. In further analysis, we demonstrate how RML impacts vary among demographic groups, shedding light on the distributional consequences of these laws. Our findings are especially important and timely given the scale of the opioid crisis in the United States and simultaneously evolving attitudes and regulations on marijuana use. (JEL I18, K32, H75)

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The Grass is Greener on the Other Side: How Extensive is the Interstate Trafficking of Recreational Marijuana?

Cited by 14 publications

References 37 publications

The Cross‐border Spillover Effects of Recreational Marijuana Legalization

The Cross‐border Spillover Effects of Recreational Marijuana Legalization

Early Evidence on Recreational Marijuana Legalization and Traffic Fatalities

The Effects of Recreational Marijuana Legalization and Dispensing on Opioid Mortality

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