The Public Health Impact of Marijuana Legalization

As marijuana legalization becomes more common, downstream effects of these policies have begun to emerge. For instance, there is growing evidence of the potential public health benefits and risks of marijuana use, including potential unintended consequences such as increased use among young people. Abt explored the effects of legalization as part of a National Institute of Justice-funded study. We interviewed criminal justice experts, several of whom shared their observations on the potential public health consequences of legalization. In this brief, we summarize interviewee observations and note how they comport with findings from our secondary data analysis.