Changes in Alcohol and Cigarette Consumption in Response to Medical and Recreational Cannabis Legalization: Evidence from U.S. State Tax Receipt Data

Washington University in St. Louis

Methods: Dependent variables included per capita consumption of alcohol and cigarettes from all 50 U.S. states, estimated from state tax receipts and maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, respectively. Results: Primary models found no statistically significant associations between medical or recreational cannabis legalization policies and either alcohol or cigarette sales per capita. We used linear regression to model state per capita alcohol and cigarette consumption as a function of state medical and recreational cannabis policy. In the Series I model, adjusting only for state and year fixed effects, there was a trend toward a negative association of medical cannabis policies and per capita alcohol sales (β= −0.031; 95% CI: −0.064, 0.003, p=0.075)—suggesting a possible reduction in per capita alcohol sales associated with medical cannabis legalization. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar] [Ref list]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6957726/