This book examines the political and social entrepreneurs that champion marijuana decriminalization efforts, their constituents’ attitudes toward legalization, the specific successful reform measures at the state level, and the consequent market dynamics in cannabis commerce. Each chapter presents a unique dataset with specific contributions in understanding local and national trends and outcomes of over two decades of cannabis legalization efforts. Using detailed analyses of user data, the contributors tackle social issues like legalization activism in the context of calls to defund the police, the impact of reforms on immigrant communities, the demographic and economic characteristics of legal dispensary customers, medical administrative structures, youth usage, and mortality related to marijuana and other drug use. Combining examples of the interplay of the benefits and costs of decriminalization implementation with an honest discussion of the possible negative aspects of recreational legalization and whom it most harms, this book offers policy makers information for future policy designs with a goal to decrease negative externalities and social inequity.

Contributions by: Nikolay Anguelov, Paul Bacdayan, José Antonio Cisneros-Tirado, Catharine M. Curran, Robert Hardaway, Rebecca Ivester, Ryan Kling, Maggie Martin, Céline Mavrot, Michael P. McCarthy, Marion McNabb, Melissa R. Michelson, Jesse Mishra, Jeffrey Moyer, Paul Musgrave, Sonja Richard, Maryam Salihu, Renee Scherlen, Joe R. Tafoya, Thalia Valkanos, Steven White, Geoffrey Whitebread, Clyde Wilcox