ABSTRACT
Background: Recreational cannabis legalization has become more prevalent over the past decade, increasing the need to understand its impact on downstream health-related outcomes. Although prior reviews have broadly summarized research on cannabis liberalization policies (including decriminalization and medical legalization), directed efforts are needed to synthesize the more recent research that focuses on recreational cannabis legalization specifically. Thus, the current review summarizes existing studies using longitudinal designs to evaluate impacts of recreational cannabis legalization on cannabis use and related outcomes. Method: A comprehensive bibliographic search strategy revealed 61 studies published from 2016 to 2022 that met criteria for inclusion. The studies were predominantly from the United States (66.2%) and primarily utilized self-report data (for cannabis use and attitudes) or administrative data (for health-related, driving, and crime outcomes). Results: Five main categories of outcomes were identified through the review: cannabis and other substance use, attitudes toward cannabis, health-care utilization, driving-related outcomes, and crime-related outcomes. The extant literature revealed mixed findings, including some evidence of negative consequences of legalization (such as increased young adult use, cannabis-related healthcare visits, and impaired driving) and some evidence for minimal impacts (such as little change in adolescent cannabis use rates, substance use rates, and mixed evidence for changes in cannabis-related attitudes). Conclusions: Overall, the existing literature reveals a number of negative consequences of legalization, although the findings are mixed and generally do not suggest large magnitude short-term impacts. The review highlights the need for more systematic investigation, particularly across a greater diversity of geographic regions.
ABSTRACT
Delayed reward discounting (DRD) refers to the extent to which an individual devalues a reward based on its delay in time and has been linked to a wide variety of health behaviors. Because it is commonly measured using monetary rewards, income is typically used as a covariate to adjust for a person's socioeconomic status. Standard financial income measures have several limitations, such as not incorporating pertinent considerations like cost of living or number of financial dependents. This study examined a novel subjective financial status measure that uses a simple omnibus self-attribution as an alternative strategy. The novel measure was examined in the context of tobacco involvement and compared with a traditional objective measure in two samples, one comprising 1,430 community-recruited adults (Mage = 38.9, 58.3% female) and the other comprising 852 adult daily smokers (Mage = 31.1, 38% female). Associations between DRD, subjective and objective income measures, and cigarette dependence were explored using correlational analyses, equivalence testing, and hierarchical linear regressions. Correlations revealed subjective income was robustly positively correlated with traditional income (rs = .52-.56) and had stronger associations with DRD and cigarette dependence compared to traditional income. Equivalence testing and multiple hierarchical regressions found subjective income to be statistically equivalent or superior to the traditional income measure. These findings provide initial support for the utility of this novel subjective income measurement to account for economic status in research on DRD and health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).