Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Medical Marijuana Laws and Tobacco Use

Anna Choi, Dhaval Dave and Joseph J. Sabia

No 22554, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: The public health costs of tobacco consumption have been documented to be substantially larger than those of marijuana use. This study is the first to investigate the impact of medical marijuana laws (MMLs) on tobacco cigarette consumption. First, using data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), we establish that MMLs induce a 2 to 3 percentage-point increase in adult marijuana consumption, likely for both recreational and medicinal purposes. Then, using data from the NSDUH, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), and the Current Population Survey Tobacco Use Supplements (CPS-TUS), we find that the enactment of MMLs leads to a 1 to 1.5 percentage-point reduction in adult cigarette smoking. We also find that MMLs reduce the number of cigarettes consumed by smokers, suggesting effects on both the cessation and intensive margins of cigarette use. Our estimated effect sizes imply substantial MML-induced tobacco-related healthcare cost savings, ranging from $4.6 to $6.9 billion per year.

JEL-codes: D1 I1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: EH LE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published as 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, vol 5(3), pages 303-333.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w22554.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22554

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w22554

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().