Recreational Marijuana Laws and Racial Disparities: New Evidence on Arrests and Deaths of Despair

Zachary S. Fone, Gokhan Kumpas and Joseph J. Sabia

Journal of Law and Economics, 2026, vol. 69, issue 2, 251 - 284

Abstract: Proponents of recreational marijuana laws (RMLs) argue that expanding legal access to marijuana may serve an important social justice objective by reducing racial disparities in arrest rates. Using data from the Uniform Crime Reports and a generalized difference-in-differences approach, we find support for this claim: RML adoption is associated with a reduction of 498–561 marijuana arrests per 100,000 persons (over 90 percent) among Black adults and a reduction of 128–145 arrests (78–88 percent) among White adults. However, we find no evidence that RML adoption reduces racial disparities in nonmarijuana drug arrests or arrests for property and violent crimes, and post-RML reallocation of policing resources to fight nonmarijuana drug crime and violent crime may, in some circumstances, widen these racial disparities. Finally, RMLs reduce opioid-related mortality among non-Hispanic Whites relative to Blacks and Hispanics, consistent with the hypothesis that those hardest hit at the outset of the US opioid epidemic disproportionately gain from recreational marijuana legalization.

Date: 2026
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