Marijuana legalization in the US has no clear positives or negatives, concludes the Cato Institute

This appeared in The Millennial Source

The research finds there are neither robust positives nor clear negatives associated with legalization.

In February, the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, released an analysis of marijuana legalization and the subsequent ripple effects of the policy. This analysis updated a related study from 2018 with additional statistics gathered from states across the country. In the two years since the original study was published, more data points have provided a fuller picture of legalizations’ impact.

In broad strokes, libertarianism is a political philosophy that advocates for individual freedoms and against government overreach. As such, libertarian politicians generally favor the legalization of marijuana (and other drugs) as a matter of individual choice. Nonetheless, the Cato Institute’s analysis is not a full-throated endorsement of legalization.

In fact, the research finds there are neither robust positives nor clear negatives associated with legalization, with the analysis concluding, “the strong claims made by both advocates and critics are substantially overstated and in some cases entirely without support from existing legalizations.”