DOI: 10.3886/icpsr38441.v1
title: Developing Methods for Assessing Outcomes of Law and Policy on Drug Trafficking Offenders, Organizations, and Criminal Justice Responses, United States, 2000-2018
title: Version 1

description: This project sought to gather and analyze data on the effects of marijuana legalization from primary and secondary data sources that are both local and national in scope, and at both the individual and aggregate level. Since 1996, 37 states have passed statutes legalizing marijuana for medical and/or recreational use, while it has remained illegal under federal law. Jurisdictional and temporal variation in law creates a complex environment and substantial challenges for police and prosecutors charged with enforcement, and little is known about the justice system processing, public safety, and public health outcomes of evolving laws and policies.
Secondary criminal justice and public health data were gathered from federal, state, and local sources. Each source has a sufficiently long time series to provide statistical power and to allow for sometimes gradual implementation. The design exploits geographic and temporal variation in the implementation of marijuana law, using a difference-in-differences design that compares outcomes in states which implemented the policies with states that did not, before and after implementation.
description: The purpose of this study was to explore how liberalized marijuana laws have affected law enforcement, public safety, and public health outcomes, as well as the structure, operations, and facilitation of drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) that smuggle and distribute marijuana. Primary research questions asked were:

How have liberalized marijuana laws impacted justice system processing, public safety, and public health outcomes?
Have the structure, operations, and facilitation of marijuana trafficking enterprises changed in response to changing laws and enforcement strategies?
Has the opening of marijuana retail outlets affected crime in surrounding areas?
description: Principal Investigators sought to answer research questions using a mixed methods approach, including secondary data analysis, coding and analysis of pre-sentence reports (PSRs) from the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC), and interviews with criminal justice stakeholders. The design used for analyses of criminal justice and public health data was a quasi-experimental time series, estimating the impact of laws and policies on observed discontinuities in criminal justice processing outcomes.
description: <strong>DS1: Cause of Death by Drug (2010-2018)</strong>

24 variables and 459 cases
All 50 states plus the District of Columbia
Obtained from CDC's WONDER database
Number of instances by state where one of 8 types of drugs was the cause of death
Percentage of deaths broken down by demographic characteristic (gender, race/ethnicity, and age)
Whether or not marijuana was legal for recreational and medical use

<strong>DS2 and DS3: Substance Abuse Treatment Admissions (2000-2017)</strong>

41 variables and 898 cases in each file
All 50 states plus the District of Columbia
Obtained from SAMHSA's Treatment Episode Data Set -
Admissions (TEDS-A)
Number of substance abuse treatment admissions by state by year
Percentage of admissions broken down by demographic characteristic (age, ethnicity, employment, education, marital status, race, and gender)
Number of admissions where marijuana is a top 3 drug (DS2) and where it is the primary drug at admission (DS3)

<strong>DS4 and DS5: Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) (2002-2018)</strong>

Case data (DS4) has 116 variables and 144 cases / Co-defendent data (DS5) has 59 variables and 294 cases
PSR data was merged with select variables from the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) data and from the Federal Justice Statistics Program (FJSP).
Cases were selected via stratified (California vs. other states that had legalized, pre- vs. post-legalization) random sampling from the USSC data.
Case data includes drug trafficking activities, method of drug transportation, drug types involved in crime, types of criminal activity, and details on drug trafficking organization (DTO)
Co-defendent data includes conviction status, offender activities, strength of evidence, first offense type, and most recent offense type

<strong>DS6: Marijuana Dispensary Data in Washington State (2012-2018)</strong>

58 variables and 17,591 cases
Cities include Bellevue, Seattle, and Tacoma
Files merge data obtained from the American Community Survey (ACS), state business and marijuana license data, and local police department crime data
Data at the Census block group level
Demographic population breakdown including race, age, and income and living situation measurements
Types of crime and number of incidents by block
Dispensary openings and locations
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Cause of Death by Drug (2010-2018)
DS2: Substance Abuse Treatment Admissions - Marijuana in Top 3 (2000-2017)
DS3: Substance Abuse Treatment Admissions - Marijuana is Primary (2000-2017)
DS4: Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) Data (2002-2018)
DS5: Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) Co-Defendant Data (2002-2018)
DS6: Marijuana Dispensary Data in Washington State (2012-2018)
description: <strong>DS2 and DS3</strong> (TEDS) - Individuals aged 12 and older admitted into a substance abuse treatment facility.
<strong>DS4 and DS5</strong> (PSR data) - Cases completed that had at least 2 pounds of marijuana seized and entered into evidence, limited to states that had legalized recreational marijuana by 2018.
<strong>DS6</strong> (Washington state) - Individuals who have been arrested in one of three cities (Bellevue, Seattle, Tacoma) in Washington state.
. Smallest Geographic Unit: Census block group
description: record abstracts; telephone interviewQualitative data consisting of interviews with criminal justice stake holders were conducted as part of this project. However, that portion of the data collection is not being released as part of this study at this time.