Marijuana legalization creates a mental health crisis for adults under 25 while simultaneously raising the income of seniors over 50.
April 25, 2026
Original Paper
Asymmetric Effects of Recreational Marijuana Laws on Mental Health and Labor Markets
SSRN · 6590998
The Takeaway
Recreational drug laws produce diametrically opposed results depending on the age of the user. Younger adults see significant increases in unemployment and poor mental health outcomes following legalization. In contrast, older adults experience less physical pain and higher earnings as their quality of life improves. This age-based split challenges the idea that marijuana policy is a simple win or loss for public health. Legislators are effectively trading the well-being of the youth for the comfort of the elderly. Policy design must account for these asymmetric effects to protect the most vulnerable populations.
From the abstract
Recreational marijuana legalization broadens adult access, but users at different ages likely face very different consequences. We estimate the effects of recreational marijuana laws (RMLs) on mental health, behavior, and labor market outcomes using a difference-indifferences imputation strategy on state-year-age-group panel data from 2003-2024 across US states. RMLs raise past-year marijuana use roughly twice as much among 18-25 year olds as among adults 26 and older (6.4 versus 3.3 percentage