Cannabis Access Laws: Effects on Sleep, Car Accidents, and Use Rates

Abstract

This dissertation is the first to examine the effects of cannabis access laws on sleep, all auto accidents and substitution trends between medical and recreational purchases. In chapter 1, using a difference-in-difference design, I find that medical marijuana laws have no impact on sleep, while recreational marijuana laws cause people to lose an average of 38 minutes of weekly sleep. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that these sleep reductions translate to around $200 billion in annual losses. In chapter 2, I examine the effects of cannabis access laws on car crashes using a novel dataset I compile of all car accidents in 44 US states. I find that medical marijuana laws have no impact on crashes, while states recreational marijuana laws are associated with at least 10,000 fewer crashes per year. Chapter 3 examines the relationship between medical marijuana programs and recreational marijuana programs to better understand if this relationship is causal and why consumers switch from one to the other. I first document the substitution from medical to recreational cannabis that occurs when the latter becomes available. I add causal evidence for this relationship by comparing Arizona’s medical cannabis trends before- and after- recreational sales initiation to New Mexico’s medical cannabis trends during the same period, and I find that Arizona saw a dip in medical cannabis while New Mexico did not. I then try to tease out why consumers switch to recreational marijuana. It could be that marijuana is simply easier to obtain, so consumers who view cannabis in a medical sense still turn to the recreational market. I find evidence to the contrary. Overall, this indicates that a large fraction of consumers likely uses medical cannabis programs to obtain drugs rather than to explore expert medical counsel from healthcare providers.