The Heterogeneous Effects of Cannabis Dispensaries on Crime: The Importance of Foot Traffic

Abstract

This paper pairs exact dispensary locations with city block level crime data to study the impact of medical cannabis dispensaries on crime in the state of Florida from 2016-2019. Leveraging a Florida state law that requires broadly uniform security provisions across dispensaries, we capture important dispensary heterogeneity by incorporating customer volume and local non-dispensary foot traffic with smartphone geopositional data. We use not-yet-operational dispensary locations as a control group and a geo-spatial difference-in-differences framework and find reductions in larceny, vehicle burglary, and motor vehicle theft following the opening of high-volume dispensaries. We fail to find evidence of similar deterrent effects near low-volume dispensaries, and instead, find larceny increases when low-volume dispensaries open in low foot traffic areas. The heterogeneous results suggest foot traffic is a significant factor impacting crime near dispensaries.

Keywords: Medical Cannabis, Crime, Marijuana, Dispensary, Deterrence, Eyes on the Street