Public opinion on the expenditure of adult-use cannabis tax revenue: Evidence from New Jersey.

OBJECTIVES: To describe New Jersey residents' relative priorities for the allocation of tax revenue generated by recreational cannabis sales. We aim to assess preferences for public health initiatives, including drug treatment, compared to a range of alternatives, including traditional policing, especially within the social and demographic groupings of people generally most impacted by punitive drug enforcement policies. METHODS: We collected population-representative survey data four months post-implementation of recreational cannabis sales in New Jersey (N = 1,006). We gauge respondents' top preferences for the allocation of new revenue generated by the legal cannabis market. Using multinomial logistic regression, we assess how various demographic and political factors shape public support for devoting revenue toward public health initiatives. RESULTS: While priorities are mixed within the sample, we find more general support for funding community-based initiatives in public health, housing, and education than for funding police, courts, and prisons. Among Black residents, the largest proportion chose investments in affordable housing. Regression analysis reveals political orientation as having the most consistent association with expressed preferences, with Republicans favoring investments in traditional law enforcement priorities over other potential funding domains. CONCLUSIONS: Recreational cannabis legalization is occurring at a rapid pace, yet important context, including how the tax revenue could be invested in communities, remains unclear. Insight into current public opinion on funding priorities suggests a desire for investment in fundamental societal institutions, including education and public health, rather than the punitive enforcement mechanisms that have defined cannabis policy for many decades.

Mental and Physical Health, Psychosocial Maturity, and Desistance in Young Adulthood.

Recent theoretical and empirical work has drawn increased attention to the role that mental and physical health can play in promoting life-course success and desistance from crime. This study integrates literature on youth development with the health-based desistance framework to investigate a key developmental pathway through which health influences desistance among system-involved youth. Using multiple waves of data from the Pathways to Desistance Study, the current study uses generalized structural equation modeling to examine whether and to what extent mental and physical health influence offending and substance use directly and indirectly through psychosocial maturity. Findings indicate that both depression and poor health stall the development of psychosocial maturity, and that those with higher psychosocial maturity are less likely to engage in offending and substance use. The model provides general support for the health-based desistance framework, finding an indirect process linking better health states to normative developmental desistance processes. Results hold important implications for the development of age-graded policies and programs geared toward promoting desistance among serious adolescent offenders both within correctional and community settings.

How does reentry get under the skin? Cumulative reintegration barriers and health in a sample of recently incarcerated men.

RATIONALE: Research demonstrates a significant link between incarceration history and poorer physical and mental health. Yet, few studies have examined how a formerly incarcerated person's barriers to reintegration in the months upon release influence health outcomes. METHOD: We use data on recently incarcerated men from the Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) to examine how multiple barriers to reintegration related to employment, housing, childcare, and service needs accumulate to influence physical and mental health three, nine, and 15 months after release. RESULTS: A series of cross-lagged panel models indicate that a greater number of barriers to reintegration after release from prison (1) decreases self-rated health at all three waves and (2) increases symptoms of depression three and nine months after release. Moreover, both lower self-rated physical health and increased symptoms of depression are found to increase reintegration barriers. CONCLUSIONS: Enhanced policy to ease the burden of reintegration and provide comprehensive services upon release may not only bolster chances for successful community reintegration but also improve the health of those formerly incarcerated at a critical juncture in their lives.