Amani Rashid - December 2023

In November 2012, Washington State voters passed Initiative 502 (I-502), which legalized limited possession, private use, and commercial sales of cannabis for adults. In this report, we examined the relationship between school proximity to an operational non-medical cannabis (NMC) retailer and high school outcomes. Our findings suggest a modest adverse relationship between proximity to a retailer and outcomes. Specifically, on average, high school students who attend a school located within a five-minute drive time to an operational retailer experience more unexcused absences and a lower likelihood of 4-year high school graduation relative to students who attend a school that does not have a nearby NMC retailer. A higher number of nearby retailers to school further relates to a higher rate of unexcused absences.

Amani Rashid, Paige Wanner - September 2023

In November 2012, Washington State voters passed Initiative 502 (I-502), which legalized limited possession, private use, and commercial sales of cannabis for adults. Specifically, I-502 legalized the possession of up to one ounce of cannabis (about 28 grams) for personal use for individuals ages 21 and older.

In this report, we examined how rates of cannabis possession misdemeanor convictions have changed since the enactment of I-502. We found that cannabis possession conviction rates dropped to almost zero among adults of legal age immediately after I-502 went into effect. Rates also substantively dropped for underaged individuals after NMC legalization, but not as dramatically as for adults ages 21 and over. Across all age groups, we find no significant changes in conviction rates after the advent of NMC retail operations.

Amani Rashid - September 2023

In November 2012, Washington State voters passed Initiative 502 (I-502), which legalized limited possession, private use, and commercial sales of cannabis for adults. The law also directed the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP) to evaluate various public health, public safety, and economic impacts of the implementation of I-502 in a series of reports.

In this third required report, we describe findings from analyses of the relationship between non-medical cannabis legalization or licensed retail operations and various outcomes. First, we examined how cannabis possession misdemeanor conviction rates changed in Washington after the passage of I-502. Second, we examined how reported cannabis use has changed in Washington after the passage of I-502 compared to non-legalizing states. Last, we specifically focused on the impact of local access to licensed non-medical retailers. For these analyses, we examined how retail access relates to substance abuse and traffic safety outcomes within the state over time.

These analyses represent an intermediate step towards the ultimate legislatively mandated benefit-cost evaluation of I-502.

Bailey Ingraham, Amani Rashid - September 2023

In November 2012, Washington State voters passed Initiative 502 (I-502), which legalized limited possession, private use, and commercial sales of cannabis for adults. In this report, using national survey data between 2004 to 2019, we compared changes in the rates of reported cannabis, alcohol, and other substance use in Washington relative to comparable states after the enactment of I-502 and the advent of a licensed retail market. We do not find evidence that the enactment of I-502 or the advent of cannabis retail sales in Washington significantly changed reported adult or youth cannabis use, alcohol use, or other substance use compared to non-legalizing states.

Amani Rashid, Nathan Adams - September 2023

In November 2012, Washington State voters passed Initiative 502 (I-502), which legalized limited possession, private use, and commercial sales of cannabis for adults. In this report, we examined if greater access to licensed non-medical cannabis (NMC) retailers relates to disordered substance use diagnoses among Medicaid beneficiaries in Washington State. We found that a lower average travel time to an NMC retailer predicts a small increase in the probability that a claim includes a diagnosis of cannabis use disorder (CUD), alcohol use disorder (AUD), or opioid use disorder (OUD) among Medicaid beneficiaries ages 21 and older and beneficiaries ages 12-17. We also found that in neighborhoods with multiple retailers located in proximity (within 5 or 10 minutes), an increase in the number of retailers predicts a higher likelihood of CUD.

Amani Rashid - September 2023

In November 2012, Washington State voters passed Initiative 502 (I-502), which legalized limited possession, private use, and commercial sales of cannabis for adults. In this report, we examined the relationship between greater access to licensed non-medical cannabis (NMC) retailers and the prevalence of fatal traffic collisions. We found that a lower average travel time to an NMC retailer is related to both a modest increase in the prevalence of total drivers involved in a fatal traffic collision and drivers who test positive for THC. These findings suggest that in areas with more cannabis use (as measured by easier access to legal cannabis retail), there are more drivers involved in fatal traffic collisions. We found no evidence that retail access relates to the prevalence of drivers who test positive for alcohol alone (BAC at least 0.08), or any amount of alcohol in combination with THC.

Bailey Ingraham, Amani Rashid - June 2023

In November 2012, Washington State voters passed Initiative 502 (I-502), which legalized limited possession, private use, and commercial sales of cannabis for adults. In this report, we describe the evolution of cannabis-related policy, revenues, and expenditures over the past decade.

We first describe the implementation of I-502 and summarize major cannabis-related policy milestones through the fiscal year 2022. In addition, we detail aspects of the Washington cannabis market structure and regulatory rules and compare components of non-medical cannabis (NMC) legalization nationwide. Second, we describe cannabis-related sales, excise tax revenues, and spending of those revenues over the last decade. In fiscal year 2022, cannabis retailers sold nearly $1.4 billion in cannabis products, and just over half a billion dollars were generated in excise tax revenues. Most of these revenues are transferred to the general fund and state basic health plan trust, and less than 20% goes to state agencies for prevention, healthcare, research, and cannabis industry oversight. Since fiscal year 2016, this distribution of expenditures has not significantly changed, although the total dollar amount of cannabis-related revenue and expenditure has nearly tripled.

Eva Westley, Marna Miller, Rebecca Goodvin, Casey Hicks - December 2019

Initiative 502 (I-502) legalized recreational cannabis for adults in Washington State. The law directs a portion of cannabis revenues to be spent on substance abuse prevention and treatment services that have been demonstrated to be effective. Specifically, state law requires at least 85% of programs funded by cannabis revenues to be evidence-based or research-based, and up to 15% to be promising practices.

In this inventory, we rate the research evidence for programs intended for the prevention or treatment of youth substance use, and we identify those specifically effective for reducing marijuana use. The 2018 Washington State Legislature directed WSIPP to update this inventory. This is the fourth update in the series.

Adam Darnell, Michael Hirsch, Paige Wanner - August 2019

The 2018 Washington State Legislature directed WSIPP to conduct additional cannabis research, supplemental to the ongoing benefit-cost evaluation of cannabis legalization authorized by Initiative 502 in 2012. As part of the new assignments, WSIPP was directed to examine effective methods for suppressing unlicensed cultivation and distribution of marijuana in jurisdictions with legal markets. We found very little evidence on that topic. Instead, we identified numerous factors that could contribute to the survival of the illicit marijuana market in the context of legalization, such as continuing prohibitions in other states and regulations that reduce the competitive advantage of the legal market. We examined key regulatory features in the nine states with licensed non-medical cannabis supply systems and found that states varied widely in the level of restriction imposed on legal supply systems. We conclude by outlining a practical strategy for monitoring illicit market reductions as the state’s approach to legalization develops.

Adam Darnell - May 2019

The 2018 Washington State Legislature directed WSIPP to conduct additional cannabis research, supplemental to the ongoing benefit-cost evaluation of cannabis legalization authorized by Initiative 502 in 2012. As part of this supplemental work, WSIPP was directed to examine current data collection methods measuring the use of marijuana by youth and potential ways to improve on these methods. In this report, we focused on the Washington Healthy Youth Survey, the primary source of data on cannabis use among Washington youth. We reviewed the evidence for harmful consequences of cannabis use focusing on how cannabis use was measured, and we examined recently developed surveys that reflect the state-of-the-art in survey measurement of marijuana use. With this information, we identified a set of potential improvements to the HYS while considering the practical limitations of revisions to an existing survey.