Eric L. Sevigny

The effects of medical marijuana laws on potency.

BACKGROUND Marijuana potency has risen dramatically over the past two decades. In the United States, it is unclear whether state medical marijuana policies have contributed to this increase. METHODS Employing a differences-in-differences model within a mediation framework, we analyzed data on n=39,157 marijuana samples seized by law enforcement in 51 U.S. jurisdictions between 1990 and 2010, producing estimates of the direct and indirect effects of state medical marijuana laws on potency, as measured by Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol content. RESULTS We found evidence that potency increased by a half percentage point on average after legalization of medical marijuana, although this result was not significant. When we examined specific medical marijuana supply provisions, results suggest that legal allowances for retail dispensaries had the strongest influence, significantly increasing potency by about one percentage point on average. Our mediation analyses examining the mechanisms through which medical marijuana laws influence potency found no evidence of direct regulatory impact. Rather, the results suggest that the impact of these laws occurs predominantly through a compositional shift in the share of the market captured by high-potency sinsemilla. CONCLUSION Our findings have important implications for policymakers and those in the scientific community trying to understand the extent to which greater availability of higher potency marijuana increases the risk of negative public health outcomes, such as drugged driving and drug-induced psychoses. Future work should reconsider the impact of medical marijuana laws on health outcomes in light of dramatic and ongoing shifts in both marijuana potency and the medical marijuana policy environment.

Gender and Sentencing Outcomes in South Carolina: Examining the Interactions With Race, Age, and Offense Type

Despite sentencing reforms over the last few decades, many states failed to introduce guidelines, including South Carolina. The present article uses data collected from the now disbanded South Carolina Sentencing Commission (1982 to 2003) in order to assess the influence of gender, age, race, and type of crime. We found that females were consistently sentenced more leniently than were similarly situated males. Interactions between gender and the other variables, however, failed to gain significance with the exception of gender and offense type for the sentence length decision. Interestingly, we found a significant interaction between gender and offense severity level for both sentencing outcomes and criminal history for the incarceration decision. We discuss the implications of these findings in the event that South Carolina would have adopted sentencing guidelines.

Is today's marijuana more potent simply because it's fresher?

The average potency of illicit marijuana in the USA has increased substantially over the past four decades, and observers have suggested a number of likely reasons for this. One set of hypotheses points to a market that has evolved from foreign to domestic sources of supply, and to continuing advances in sophisticated cultivation techniques. Another set of hypotheses points to testing artifacts related to changes in the sampling, handling, and testing of illicit marijuana. The current study uses data from the federally sponsored Potency Monitoring Program, which performs ongoing forensic analysis of seized marijuana samples, to assess the extent to which the observed increase in cannabis potency in the USA between 1970 and 2010 is a function of genuine shifts in illicit marijuana markets or testing artifacts related to changes in the quality of seized marijuana. The study finds, after adjusting for marijuana quality, that the apparent 10.5 factor increase in mean reported THC% between the 1970s and the 2000s is instead on the order of a six- to seven-fold increase. By this accounting, then, the reported long-term rise in potency is roughly 57-67% as great when the quality of the tested marijuana is taken into account. This studys findings, therefore, caution against the uncritical use of potency monitoring data and highlight the importance of assessing potency measurement reliability and addressing data quality issues in future policy analytic research.

Can Drug Courts Help to Reduce Prison and Jail Populations

Drug courts have been widely praised as an important tool for reducing prison and jail populations by diverting drug-involved offenders into treatment rather than incarceration. Yet only a small share of offenders presenting with drug abuse or dependence are processed in drug courts. This study uses inmate self-report surveys from 2002 and 2004 to examine characteristics of the prison and jail populations in the United States and assess why so many drug-involved offenders are incarcerated. Our analysis shows that four factors have prevented drug courts from substantially lowering the flow into prisons and jails. In descending order of importance, these are: drug courts’ tight eligibility requirements, specific sentencing requirements, legal consequences of program noncompliance, and constraints in drug court capacity and funding. Drug courts will only be able to help lower prison and jail populations if substantial changes are made in eligibility and sentencing rules.

Patterns of Substance Involvement and Criminal Behavior: A Gender-Based Cluster Analysis of Pennsylvania Arrestees

Recent drug-crime scholarship has underscored the importance of conducting disaggregated research that focuses on the consistencies and variations between subcategories of drug misuse and criminal activity and, further, how these associations may vary across sociodemographic and cultural boundaries. The research presented in this article used cluster analysis to independently classify male and female arrestees based on their arrest charges and substance-specific indicators of initiation, use, dependence, and treatment need. The data come from Pennsylvanias Substance Abuse and Need for Treatment Among Arrestees study conducted as part of the State Treatment Needs Assessment Program. Five groups were identified in both the male and female cluster analyses. The results reveal both important differences and strong similarities in the drug-crime typologies of male and female arrestees. Given these findings, implications are discussed for developing and targeting responsive treatment services that match the particular risks and needs of drug-involved offenders.

The Influence of Agency Policies on Conducted Energy Device Use and Police Use of Lethal Force

Law enforcement agencies across the United States, partly in response to public outcries over fatalities associated with police use of lethal force, have adopted numerous less lethal technologies, including conducted energy devices (CEDs). Although the device was intended to reduce citizen deaths resulting from police use of force, various human rights groups have linked its usage to increased fatalities. The present study adds to the literature on CEDs by examining (a) the relationship between the restrictiveness of CED-related policies and CED deployments and (b) the relationship between these policies and fatal police shootings. Using data from a nationally representative sample of American law enforcement agencies, this study estimates a series of count regression models to examine the influence of departmental policies on CED usage and fatal shootings by police. Findings illustrate that less restrictive CED policies are associated with increased CED usage and fewer fatal shootings by police. Although design limitations preclude causal arguments, these results suggest that police departments should at least consider adopting more liberal policies regarding the application of this less lethal technology. Future studies on this issue using more rigorous designs are warranted.

Court communities in local context: a multilevel analysis of felony sentencing in South Carolina

This study examines county-level influences on sentencing practices in South Carolina, a state with a sentencing structure that is different from many of the jurisdictions that have been the focus of recent county-level studies. Using multilevel models, we examined the impact that changes in socioeconomic disadvantage, changes in crime rates, the county political makeup, and county caseload had on incarceration and expected sentence length determinations. For the incarceration decision, worsening socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with a modest increase in the likelihood of incarceration in a county while counties with heavier caseloads were slightly less likely to incarcerate offenders. None of the county-level indicators were significant for the sentence length decision. The results reveal relatively small levels of variation in outcomes across counties, suggesting that South Carolina court communities are largely characterized by similarities, perhaps due to the states legal culture characteristics and sentencing structure.

Do Barriers to Crime Prevention Moderate the Effects of Situational Crime Prevention Policies on Violent Crime in High Schools

ABSTRACT This study investigates how barriers to school-based crime prevention programming moderate the effects of situational crime prevention (SCP) policies on levels of violent crime in U.S. public high schools. Using data from the 2008 School Survey on Crime and Safety, we estimate a series of negative binomial regression models with interactions to investigate whether the effects of SCP policies on violent crime vary by the presence of school-based barriers to crime prevention, such as poor teacher training, inadequate funds, and lack of parental support. Our results indicate that the effect of certain SCP policies operate differently depending on the presence or absence of specific limiting factors. Policy implications of this research suggest that schools can aid in preventing violent crime by addressing obstacles to the effective implementation of school crime prevention efforts.

The effects of medical marijuana laws on cannabis-involved driving

This study uses data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and a differences-in-differences model to examine the effect of state medical marijuana laws (MMLs) on cannabis-involved driving among U.S. drivers involved in a fatal crash between 1993-2014. Findings indicate that MMLs in general have a null effect on cannabis-positive driving, as do state laws with specific supply provisions including home cultivation and unlicensed or quasi-legal dispensaries. Only in jurisdictions with state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries did the odds of marijuana-involved driving increase significantly by 14 percent, translating into an additional 87 to 113 drivers testing positive for marijuana per year. Sensitivity analyses reveal these findings to be generally robust to alternate specifications, although an observed spillover effect consistent with elevated drugged driving enforcement in bordering states weakens a causal interpretation. Still, reasonable policy implications are drawn regarding drugged driving prevention/enforcement and regulations governing dispensary delivery services and business siting decisions.

Marijuana Liberalization, Research, and Policy: Contributions to Current Knowledge and Practice

There is enormous heterogeneity in state marijuana laws that continue to change over time (Pacula & Sevigny, 2014).When I accepted the invitation to guest edit this special issue on marijuana policy in early 2016, 24 states had existing laws regulating the medical use of marijuana and five states had legalized adult recreational marijuana use outright. During the past year, as I managed the review process for the articles included in this issue, six additional states enacted medical marijuana laws (Arkansas, Florida, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia), and four others authorized recreational marijuana use and sales (California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada). These 10 states are the most recent to liberalize their marijuana laws—but certainly not the last—in amovement that stretches backmore than two decades to California’s 1996 ballot referendum legalizing medical marijuana. The current legal frameworks governing marijuana access, supply, and distribution in the now 30 medical and nine recreational marijuana states are a complex product of each jurisdiction’s original and amending legislation, promulgated administrative rules, and relevant court decisions.