The Links Between Cannabis and Crime: Examining the Evidence from Recent Policy Experiments

Cannabis legalization for adult use has reshaped drug policy across much of the United States, raising hopes that its effects on the criminal justice system may mitigate the racially disparate harms of drug prohibition. We conduct a narrative review of studies published between January 2015 and September 2025 that use quasi-experimental methods to estimate the causal effects of adult-use cannabis legalization on crime, organizing findings across three domains: psychopharmacological crime caused by people who use cannabis, systemic crime generated by cannabis markets (illegal and legal), and cannabis crimes as defined by prohibition. We then examine the impacts legalization has had on the broader criminal justice system and discuss other factors that could influence longer-term crime trajectories. Available evidence demonstrates that adult-use legalization has produced large declines in cannabis arrests for adults but not youth. Violent crime and other drug offenses do not change substantially, although certain types of property crimes may modestly increase. Legalization has also reduced, although not eliminated, crime associated with illegal cannabis markets, suggesting that, on net, legalization produces reductions in crime. However, these declines have not translated into measurable improvements in criminal justice system efficiency or meaningful declines in racial disparities, highlighting a need for additional strategies and further evaluation.