Joint Effects: How Medical Marijuana Legalization Affects State-level Marijuana Use and Non-medical Pain Reliever Use Public

Abstract

This study examines the potential link between the passage of medical marijuana laws and two types of illicit drug use: marijuana use and non-medical pain reliever (NMPR) use. It uses state-level data of 2002 to 2011 extracted from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the Marijuana Policy Project, the Center for Disease Control, US Department of Labor, US Census Bureau, and US Department of Education. The results show that there is generally a modest, positive association between medical marijuana legalization (MML) and marijuana use and MML and state-level prevalence of NMPR usage by individuals aged 12 to 17 and 18 to 25. The results also show that marijuana and NMPR use by individuals aged 18 to 25 increases more than those by individuals aged 12 to 17 when a state legalizes medical marijuana. The main implication of this current study is that the increased accessibility of marijuana through MML could encourage more prescription pain reliever abuse among individuals aged 12 to 25. However, it is difficult to determine whether the increase in NMPR use is being directly driven by the marijuana gateway effect.

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

1

II. Literature Review

5

III. Data and Empirical Strategy

7

IV. Results and Analysis

11

V. Discussions & Limitations

21

VI. References

24

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Economics and Mathematics
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Economics, General
Mot-clé	marijuana use NSDUH non-medical pain reliever use pain reliever medical marijuana pain killer
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Francis, Andrew, Emory University
Committee Members	Zureick-Brown, David M, Emory University Murphy, Vinnie, Emory University

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