Amid the ongoing liberalization of state recreational marijuana laws (RMLs), the National Institutes of Health has expressed concern that expanded marijuana access may elevate the prevalence of schizophrenia and psychotic disorders across the United States. This study presents one of the first causal estimates of the impact of RMLs on the incidence of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorder treatment intakes. Leveraging a generalized difference-in-differences framework to exploit the staggered rollout of RMLs, I first document that the passage of RMLs with recreational dispensaries generates a 20% increase in the rate of prior-month marijuana use in treated states relative to controls. Next, I show that RML adoption with dispensaries leads to a 12% increase in the incidence of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorder intakes at state-sponsored mental health facilities nationwide.

A near majority of states have now passed recreational marijuana laws (RMLs), but their impact on individual employment outcomes is unclear. Using CPS ASEC 2002–2022, this study estimates the effect of RMLs on workplace absenteeism via difference-in-differences exploiting staggered state adoption. I first replicate prior work showing adult marijuana use rises after passage and dispensary openings. I then find workplace absence rates increase by ~10% following recreational dispensary openings. Time-use auxiliary analyses indicate substitution from work to leisure in the post-treatment period. Results are robust to alternative specifications, event-study analyses, and modern DiD estimators that address heterogeneity bias.