Cloudy with a chance of munchies: Assessing the impact of recreational marijuana legalization on obesity

Authors

Raymond J March, Veeshan Rayamajhee, Glenn L Furton


Published

September 8 2022

Abstract

Obesity in the US arguably constitutes the most significant health epidemic over the past century. Recent legislative changes allowing for recreational marijuana use further create a need to better understand the relationship between marijuana use and health choices, leading to obesity. We examine this relationship by using a synthetic control approach to examine the impact of legalized recreational marijuana access on obesity rates by comparing Washington State to a synthetically constructed counterfactual. We find that recreational marijuana’s introduction did not lead to increased obesity rates and may have led to decreases in obesity.

 
 


DOI: 10.1002/hec.4598

Citations

March, R. J., Rayamajhee, V., & Furton, G. L. (2022). Cloudy with a chance of munchies: Assessing the impact of recreational marijuana legalization on obesity. Health Economics.