Angelica Meinhofer is an Assistant Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine’s Department of Population Health Sciences. She specializes in health economics and applied microeconomics. Her research examines the impact of public health interventions and drug policies on the market for controlled substances using quasi-experimental methods and large administrative datasets (e.g. MAX/TAF Medicaid claims, HCUP State Inpatient Databases).

Title: State recreational cannabis laws and racial disparities in the criminal legal system

Abstract: Racial disparities in enforcement of drug prohibition are longstanding, with Black communities disproportionately affected. We study the effect of cannabis legalization on racial disparities in criminal justice outcomes using a difference-in-differences framework. Legalization led to significant declines in cannabis arrests for White and Black populations, but did not eliminate racial disparities. Total arrests were unchanged due to offsetting increases in arrests for less serious quality-of-life offenses, particularly among Black populations. Incarceration rates for drug offenses only declined for White populations. Lastly, we do not find evidence of increased criminal activity among Black populations, suggesting this mechanism cannot explain arrest increases.