"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."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.