The impact of recreational marijuana sales on calls for service: an analysis of neighbouring cities

ABSTRACT

Research has begun to explore to what extent I-502, the initiative authorising the retail distribution of recreational marijuana in Washington State, influenced a range of public safety outcomes. However, despite a growing body of research exploring potential impacts on crime, absent from this research has been a more nuanced analysis of officer workload. Specifically, an analysis into calls for service received and initiated by police. To document to what extent I-502 is associated with changes in the type of calls police agencies respond to, this research uses an interrupted time series, to analyse data provided from two border-straddling cities (Pullman, WA, and Moscow, ID). Findings indicate that recreational sales of marijuana is associated with noteworthy changes in police resourcing in the legalised state setting and the magnitude of those changes vary based on call type.

KEYWORDS:

• Legalisation of marijuana
• I-502
• recreational sale of marijuana
• calls for service
• interrupted time series analysis
• police resourcing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/committees/young-advocates/practice/2015/nebraska-and-oklahoma-sue-colorado-over-marijuana-laws/.

Additional information

Funding

The research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Justice under award number NIJ-2016-9090. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Justice.