Time Trends Matter: The Case of Medical Cannabis Laws and Opioid Overdose Mortality

R. Vincent Pohl ()

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Mortality due to opioid overdoses has been growing rapidly in the U.S., with some states experiencing much steeper increases than others. Legalizing medical cannabis could reduce opioid-related mortality if potential opioid users substitute towards cannabis as a safer alternative. I show, however, that a substantial reduction in opioid-related mortality associated with the implementation of medical cannabis laws can be explained by selection bias. States that legalized medical cannabis exhibit lower pre-existing mortality trends. Accordingly, the mitigating effect of medical cannabis laws on opioid-related mortality vanishes when I include state-specific time trends in state-year-level difference-in-differences regressions.

Keywords: medical cannabis laws; opioid overdose mortality; difference-in-differences; group-specific time trends (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 I12 I18 K32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-06-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: Time Trends Matter: The Case of Medical Cannabis Laws and Opioid Overdose Mortality (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:87237

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