Marijuana Use and Health Weiwei Chen
Overview Despite a trend to legalize marijuana use, the health effects are not well understood. Studies often exploit the staggered adoption of marijuana laws across states to examine the impact of marijuana use on various health outcomes. However, whether the individuals under study ever used marijuana is rarely known. In a few studies that directly link individual marijuana use with health outcomes, the samples are often small, and the observed associations may not be causal. This study applies an instrumental variable approach to examine the impact of marijuana use on individual health. It leverages data from responses to marijuana questions in a nationally representative survey. Considering the potential for reverse causality between marijuana use and health outcomes, we use state marijuana laws as an instrument for marijuana use, and to check robustness, we use cigarette tax as an alternative instrument. Our preliminary results suggest that marijuana use relates to improved health status and fewer days in the last month when physical or mental health was not good. This effect is more pronounced among people with multiple chronic health conditions. The results are robust when the alternative instrumental variable is used.
36 | Summer Research Fellowship
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