Crime and the Legalization of Recreational Marijuana

Davide Dragone, Giovanni Prarolo (), Paolo Vanin and Giulio Zanella

No 10522, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We provide first-pass evidence that the legalization of the cannabis market across US states may be inducing a crime drop. Exploiting the recent staggered legalization enacted by the adjacent states of Washington (end of 2012) and Oregon (end of 2014) we find, combining county-level difference-in-differences and spatial regression discontinuity designs, that the legalization of recreational marijuana caused a significant reduction of rapes and thefts on the Washington side of the border in 2013-2014 relative to the Oregon side and relative to the pre-legalization years 2010-2012. We also find evidence that the legalization increased consumption of marijuana and reduced consumption of other drugs and both ordinary and binge alcohol.

Keywords: recreational marijuana; cannabis; crime (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K23 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2017-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-law
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2019, 159, 488-501

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Journal Article: Crime and the legalization of recreational marijuana (2019)
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