Cannabis Legalization Cut Arrests but Racial Gaps Persisted

Using arrest data from 43 states (2000-2019), legalization and decriminalization both substantially reduced cannabis arrests for Black and White adults and youth, but racial disparities in arrest ratios persisted over time, while states without policy changes saw increasing disparities.

Case-control event-study analysis using Uniform Crime Reporting Program arrest data and SEER population data from 43 U.S. states (2000-2019), comparing pre- and post-implementation differences in arrest rates across legalization, decriminalization, and no-change states.

While legalization dramatically reduced absolute numbers of cannabis arrests for all racial groups, the persistent disparity gap suggests that policy change alone is insufficient to address racial inequity in enforcement.

The finding that racial arrest disparities increased in states without cannabis policy changes, while persisting even in states with legalization, suggests that cannabis policy reform is necessary but not sufficient for achieving racial equity in the criminal justice system.

Arrest data may not capture all enforcement actions; state-level analysis may mask county or city-level variation; cannot control for all confounders affecting arrest patterns; UCR data has known reporting limitations.