Domestic Violence and Marijuana: Evidence from Recreational Marijuana Legalization

We conduct a difference-in-differences analysis to study the potential effect of marijuana use on domestic violence. Our identification exploits variations in the implementation of recreational marijuana legalization (RML) in Colorado and Kansas. The Colorado RML implementation in 2014 leads to a 13.2% increase in the monthly domestic violence rate. A placebo test shows that this effect is only significant for offenders aged above 21, the legal age to purchase recreational marijuana. Denver, the host of over 70% of Colorado marijuana stores, sees a prominent effect of 24.1%. Overall, we provide the first causal evidence on the dark side of RML.