The Effect of State Marijuana Advertising Restrictions on Underage Use

• In Event: Measurement and Determinants of the Abuse of Cannabis and Other Illicit Drugs

Abstract

Objective: Recent studies indicate a positive association between marijuana advertising exposure and adolescent use rates. The purpose of this study is to extend this research by investigating the effect of state marijuana advertisement content and placement restrictions on past year marijuana prevalence among both youth and adults.
Methods: We use secondary state-level data from the 2002-2019 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) to measure self-reported past-year use across different age groups (12-17, 18-20, 21 and older). Advertising restriction policy information come from the Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS). We include a standard set of control variables common in marijuana policy research. We employ a series of difference-in-difference models to examine the effect of marijuana advertising restrictions on marijuana use across different age groups.
Results: Restrictions on marijuana advertising content and placement were associated with statistically significant increases in use prevalence for both underage and adult populations.
Conclusions: Marijuana advertising restrictions appear to be associated with increases in underage use, but it is doubtful that policies intended to restrict youth exposure positively affect use rates. Thus, an important question concerns the degree to which expected increases in underage use following recreational marijuana legalization (RML) are mitigated by these policies.

Authors

• Danye Medhin, Georgia State University

• Eric Sevigny, Georgia State University

• Jared Greathouse, Georgia State University