Legalizing Cannabis: Implications for Child Maltreatment

Cannabis is the most used illicit drug in the United States. Though cannabis possession and consumption are prohibited federally, states are increasingly implementing laws that legalize this substance, initially for medical and, more recently, for recreational use. We study the impact of recreational cannabis laws on child maltreatment reports. To do so, we employ difference-in-differences and event-study methods to analyze administrative data on child maltreatment reports as well as child injury-related deaths 2010-2022. We find that recent efforts to legalize cannabis for recreational consumption have not led to an increase in child maltreatment reports and may reduce particularly severe maltreatment.