Medical Marijuana Laws and Teen Marijuana Use

D. Mark Anderson, Benjamin Hansen and Daniel Rees

No 20332, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: While at least a dozen state legislatures in the United States have recently considered bills to allow the consumption of marijuana for medicinal purposes, the federal government is intensifying its efforts to close medical marijuana dispensaries. Federal officials contend that the legalization of medical marijuana encourages teenagers to use marijuana and have targeted dispensaries operating within 1,000 feet of schools, parks and playgrounds. Using data from the national and state Youth Risk Behavior Surveys, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 and the Treatment Episode Data Set, we estimate the relationship between medical marijuana laws and marijuana use. Our results are not consistent with the hypothesis that legalization leads to increased use of marijuana by teenagers.

JEL-codes: D78 I1 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
Note: CH EH LE
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published as D. Mark Anderson & Benjamin Hansen & Daniel I. Rees, 2015. "Medical Marijuana Laws and Teen Marijuana Use," American Law and Economics Review, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(2), pages 495-528.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w20332.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Medical Marijuana Laws and Teen Marijuana Use (2015)
Working Paper: Medical Marijuana Laws and Teen Marijuana Use (2012)
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:20332

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w20332

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 ().