Marijuana Regulation and its Impacts on Crime and Public Insecurity Perceptions

• In Event: Drugs, Crime and Territory in Latin America

Abstract

Uruguay is the first country in the world to fully regulate marijuana, from its production, to distribution, commercialization and consumption. The law passed in December 2013 provides for three methods of access to marijuana: cannabis club membership, self-cultivation and purchase at pharmacies. One of the main law objectives is to increase public security and reduce crimes related to drugs by taking away marijuana from drugs dealers.
This paper presents the results of a natural experiment that aims to evaluate the impact that closeness to drugs consumers have on insecurity perceptions and crime victimization. It does so using an “as if random” observational design in which the “treatment” is living close to a marijuana selling pharmacy, and the control group is comprised by neighbors of a non-selling pharmacy. Our main hypothesis is that closeness to the pharmacies that sell marijuana will reduce citizens insecurity perceptions but will not have an impact on crime victimization. We test these hypotheses using data of two surveys, one before and one after the implementation of the selling at pharmacies. The sample is composed by 1301 neighbors of 64 pharmacies, 10 or more neighbors per pharmacy in each round. We measure that impact on different outcomes: country’s insecurity perception, neighborhood’s insecurity perception, crime victimization in the last twelve months, perceived impact of the regulation on public safety and drugs trafficking, interpersonal trust, law approval, robberies and homicides rates. Data is analyzed using a difference in differences model.

Authors

• Rosario Queirolo, Universidad Católica del Uruguay

• Jacob Bowers, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• Lorena Repetto, Catholic University of Uruguay

• Eliana Álvarez, Universidad Católica del Uruguay