- Campbell, William, et al. “Support for Marijuana (Cannabis) Legalization: Untangling Age, Period, and Cohort Effects.” Collabra. Psychology, vol. 3, no. 1, 2017, pp. Collabra. Psychology, 2017–01-01, Vol.3 (1).
In Campbells article “Support for Marijuana Legalization” the author highlights a longitudinal study conducted from 1968-2015 that monitors young adults (12th graders and college students) views on marijuana. Campbell highlights that this group has become more progressive in their views as time has moved on. He even links their increasing acceptance views with the view that marijuana has become safer.
Campbell acknowledges that a reason for the increased acceptance of marijuana is due in part to a “cohort effect”. Cohort effects are changes that happen when a newer generation is born and since the views seemed to become more progressive with each generation between 1968-2015, this study attributes that change to a cohort effect. In addition to the cohort, Campbell acknowledges there has been a huge cultural shift in the countries overall view of marijuana which fits into a much larger cultural shift the country has gone through in those ~50 years. As new generations take control of the country, the country has seemed to become more progressive so it should not be a shock that marijuana views have also changed.
Campbell used three surveys to conduct this study. He used the General Social Survey (GSS) which is a nationally representative sample of people over 18 and was collected on most years between 1972 and 2014 although it was not collected every year. Campbell also used Monitoring the Future (MtF) which is a representative survey of high school students and takes input from about 15,000 students across the country every spring from 1976-2015. Lastly, Campbell used the American Freshman which is nationally representative survey of freshman students attending four year universities.
Campbell’s conclusion from these surveys and analysis was support for marijuana legalization was increasing and if that trend continues, legalization views will be a majority view for the countries populace with in a decade. Campbell did acknowledge that these beliefs are tied to how the populace views how safe marijuana is and if there is something that shakes our view that marijuana is relatively safe, the legalization view would quickly follow suit.
- Miech, Richard. “Marijuana Legalization and Marijuana Prevalence Among Adolescents.” American Journal of Public Health (1971), vol. 110, no. 9, 2020, pp. 1268–1269.
This article by Richard Miech “Marijuana Legalization and Marijuana Prevalence Among Adolescents” is looking at the rates of high schoolers are using marijuana in pre and post legalization efforts. He looks as a few different states including California and annotates that out of 504 students surveyed the year before legalization and the year after had no significant changes in the number of users. ~31% of those 504 surveyed youth admitted to regularly using marijuana in 2015 and again the same percentage admitting to using in 2018 following California’s legalization laws. This finding was repeated in several other states. Miech does make the point that this group already has higher than country average number of users so that may skew some of the data. Because the amount of users in this age group are higher already, it may be difficult to actually measure and significant changes post legalization. On a larger scale, 42% – 49% of 12th graders admitted to having atleast tried marijuana in 2015 and when surveyed again in 2019, 44% of 12th graders admitted to trying it so once again there has not been a large change in the amount of this age group in trying marijuana.
- Kerr, David C. R, et al. “Oregon Recreational Marijuana Legalization: Changes in Undergraduates’ Marijuana Use Rates From 2008 to 2016.” Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, vol. 32, no. 6, 2018, pp. 670–678.
In Kerr’s article “Oregon Recreational Marijuana Legalization: Changes in Undergraduates’ Marijuana Usage Rates”. Kerr states in the beginning something that is contrary to everything else I have read and wanted to make sure it was included so I could get a more holitisic view of the question. Kerr found that marijuana usage had increased in 8th and 10th graders in Washington state as compared to steady rates in states like California and Colorado. Kerr did find, similar to other studies, that usage rates increased parallel to views of marijuana safety also increasing. As students began to view that marijuana was safer, there was an increased in trying it in just Washington.
When Kerr looked at college aged students in Oregon universities, he found that there was an increase in the number of students admitting usage within 30 days of recreational usage. Kerr even suggested that in states where marijuana was legalized, students had an increase of 29% chance of using marijuana compared to states where recreational marijuana had not been approved. In addition to an increased chance of using marijuana in legalized states, Kerr also found that in Oregon students used more often within that first 30 days of legalization. His data suggested that students used at a minimum 3-4 times in that 30 day period after legalization compared to 1-2 times before legalization. He did not have this information for younger students though which I would have liked to include in my paper because I think everyone can agree that an increase of usage in 8th or 10th graders is not something that would be viewed a legalization positive.
- Giovenco, Daniel P, et al. “Cigarillo Sales in Legalized Marijuana Markets in the U.S.” Drug and Alcohol Dependence, vol. 185, 2018, pp. 347–350.
In Giovenco’s article “Cigarillo Sales in Legalized Marijuana Markets in the U.S”, the author looks at the rates of tobacco use in states that have legalized marijuana. The use of cigarillo wrappers is commonly used for marijuana consumption and Giovenco discovered that states that have legalized marijuana are also seeing an increase in tobacco use. In fact, he discovered that a popular brand of cigarillo wrappers, Swisher’s, which accounted for almost 3% of cigarillo sales in the U.S., accounts for almost 12% of almost all cigarillo sales in Denver alone. Swisher’s is only one cigarillo brand, but it dominates the tobacco-related market in Colorado. Although cigarillo sales are on the rise in legalize states, Giovenco acknowledges there is no correlation between marijuana use and actual tobacco usage. There is no data to suggest that marijuana consumers are also consuming cigarettes for example. The increase in tobacco-related products is concerning though according to Giovenco. The U.S. has done a good job of curbing tobacco-related illnesses and diseases but the rising sales of cigarillo’s and other tobacco-related products that are used in marijuana consumption, could lead to another spike in tobacco sicknesses. Studies have also shown that when cigarillo wrappers are used, they do contain nicotine which combined with marijuana, lead to an increased chance of dependency on which again goes against efforts the U.S. has undertaken to curb tobacco use. Giovenco suggests the U.S. could and probably should begin to introduce legislation to help combat the rising sales of cigarillo’s to once again reign in tobacco-related illnesses that are likely only a few years away. With states continuing to legalize or decriminalize the use of marijuana, they may want to get on the regulation train quick.
- Zambiasi, Diego, and Steven Stillman. “THE POT RUSH: IS LEGALIZED MARIJUANA A POSITIVE LOCAL AMENITY?” Economic Inquiry, vol. 58, no. 2, 2020, pp. 667–679.
In this economic focused article by Zambiasi and Stillman titles “The Pot Rush: Is Legalized Marijuana a Positive Local Amenity?”, the authors looked at net migration in and out of Colorado before and after marijuana legalization in 2012. The authors found that people who moved to Colorado had a very positive view of marijuana. There was, however, there was no data to suggest that people who moved out of Colorado did it because they had a negative view of marijuana. This article is actually in line with just about everything else I’ve read and the informal survey I conducted. There is no data to suggest that people will change their minds on marijuana post-legalization just like there is no data to suggest that people moving out of Colorado were moving because of marijuana. It would be naïve to assume some did not like marijuana, but they likely had to relocate for a multitude of other reasons.
This study looked at the number of people moving into Colorado, and they found strong evidence that people moved into Colorado because they saw legalized marijuana as a positive local amenity. On average, 187,000 people migrated into Colorado between 2005 – 2009. However, in 2010 – 2013 (marijuana going through the legal process to get approved) immigration increased by 21,000 people each of those years and in 2013 when marijuana was fully legalized in Colorado, that number increased by 15,000. The authors found that a majority of these people moving into the state likely held very positive views of legalize marijuana. Reasons cited included an increase in state revenue and potential for a new jobs market.