Developing Methods for Assessing Outcomes of Law and Policy on Drug Trafficking Offenders, Organizations, and Criminal Justice Responses, United States, 2000-2018 (ICPSR 38441)
Version Date: Feb 27, 2024 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Maggie Martin, Abt Associates
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38441.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
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.
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Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
Census block group
Restrictions View help for Restrictions
Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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Qualitative 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.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
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?
Study Design View help for Study Design
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.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
- DS2 and DS3 (TEDS) - Individuals aged 12 and older admitted into a substance abuse treatment facility.
- DS4 and DS5 (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.
- DS6 (Washington state) - Individuals who have been arrested in one of three cities (Bellevue, Seattle, Tacoma) in Washington state.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for Data Source
Washington state's seed-to-sale database Traceability for dispensary data
United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) for individual offenders
American Community Survey's 5-year estimates for Washington state
CDC's Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) from 2010 to 2018 for mortality data
SAMHSA's Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) from 2000-2017 for substance abuse treatment admissions
Crime data obtained from Seattle, Tacoma, and Bellevue police departments
Business licenses for dispensaries and similar businesses from the Washington State Department of Revenue
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
DS1: Cause of Death by Drug (2010-2018)
- 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
DS2 and DS3: Substance Abuse Treatment Admissions (2000-2017)
- 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)
DS4 and DS5: Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) (2002-2018)
- 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
DS6: Marijuana Dispensary Data in Washington State (2012-2018)
- 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
Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2024-02-27
Version History View help for Version History
2024-02-27 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
ICPSR usually offers files in multiple formats for researchers to be able to access data and documentation in formats that work well within their needs. If you have questions about the accessibility of materials distributed by ICPSR or require further assistance, please visit ICPSR’s Accessibility Center.
One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.
This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.