.Legal Weed Appears to Cause a Sharp Reduction in Suicides: Discuss

At least that’s what epidemiologists and psychologists are going to have to do, in light of new findings from the same researchers who found that legalization correlates with fewer road deaths:

“Using state-level data for the period 1990 through 2007, we estimate the effect of legalizing medical marijuana on suicide rates. Our results suggest that the passage of a medical marijuana law is associated with an almost 5 percent reduction in the total suicide rate, an 11 percent reduction in the suicide rate of 20- through 29-year-old males, and a 9 percent reduction in the suicide rate of 30- through 39-year-old males. Estimates of the relationship between legalization and female suicides are less precise and are sensitive to functional form.”

That’s from the discussion paper, entitled “High on Life? Medical Marijuana Laws and Suicide,” written by D. Mark Anderson, Daniel I. Rees, and Joseph J. Sabia, and sponsored by the IZA, a private, independent research institute that conducts nationally- and internationally-oriented labor market research.

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