Essays on the Impact of Recreational Marijuana Laws (RMLs)

Marijuana legalization has been one of the central topics in public policy scholarship over the past decade. This dissertation consists of three essays aimed at advancing the existing literature on marijuana legalization by examining its impact on three important areas: 1) social equity in criminal justice, 2) prescribed opioid consumption, and 3) labor market performance. The first essay focuses on the impact of RMLs on racial disparities in marijuana-related arrest rates. Using arrest data from the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and the difference-in-differences (DiD) methodology, I found that the effects of Recreational Marijuana Laws (RMLs) on racial disparities in marijuana-related arrests varied across different age and racial groups. Specifically, RMLs were significantly associated with decreases in arrest rates among Black and White adults, as well as Hispanic juveniles. However, the policy correlated with an increase in marijuana sale arrests among White juveniles. For other groups, RMLs had no discernible impact. More importantly, the policy reform had statistically significant effects on reducing relative disparities in marijuana-related arrests among juveniles. RMLs were associated with notable decreases in relative disparities between Black and Hispanic juveniles compared to their White counterparts. Conversely, the policy reform had a negligible impact on relative disparities in adult marijuana-related arrests. The second essay studies the impact of RMLs on prescribed opioid consumption. Employing the de Chaisemartin & D’haultfœuille DiD estimator and State Drug Utilization data from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) covering the period from 2009 to 2023, I found that the opening of recreational marijuana dispensaries under RMLs significantly reduced the number of both Schedule II and Schedule III prescriptions. Additionally, increases in retail marijuana sales were significantly correlated with decreases in both Schedule II and Schedule III opioid prescriptions, though the impact was marginal in magnitude. The third essay investigates the effects of RMLs on the duration of unemployment. To address this question, I run fixed effects models using data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) for the period of 2009 – 2019 and the Current Population Survey for the period of 2009 – 2023. The results suggest that there is a strong association between unemployment and marijuana consumption. In addition, the adoption of RMLs is associated with lower chances of unemployment among the previously unemployed population. Findings from this dissertation offer crucial insights and policy implications.