Is this the most useless study ever? Cannabis legalization linked to increase in junk food consumption in the U.S.

Emma Spears - thegrowthop.com Posted 5 years ago
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Researchers have made a shocking discovery between state legalization of recreational cannabis and increased consumption of junk food.

 

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The totally necessary and not at all redundant study from an economist at the University of Connecticut looked at monthly data related to the purchases of high-calorie snacks such as chips, ice cream and cookies from retailers such as grocery, drug and convenience stores in over 2,000 counties across the United States over a period of 10 years. The data covers 48 U.S. states such as Colorado, Washington and Oregon, and over 50 designated market areas. The information was derived mostly from the Neilsen Retail Scanner database.

Michele Baggio, assistant professor of economics at UConn, completed the study alongside professor Albert Chong of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.

The study compares purchasing trends to the dates for the legalization of recreational cannabis in each area. The trend was consistent in all three states studied that have legalized cannabis for recreational use. Numbers show that states that have legalized cannabis showed a 4.1% increase in cookie sales, a 3.1% increase in ice cream sales, and a 5.3% increase in chip sales immediately after the implementation of legalization.

Although the purchase rates of ice cream and chips showed a moderate decrease in the months following implementation, cookie purchases remain elevated.

“These might seem like small numbers,” Baggio says. “But they’re statistically significant and economically significant as well.”

The study focused exclusively on purchasing data and did not collect numbers related to health or obesity rates. Baggio hopes that lawmakers might take the information into account when creating future policies, but that he doesn’t have a particularly strong stance on recreational cannabis legalization.

“I’m not an advocate for legalization or not,” Baggio says. “I’m just interested in whether there are unintended consequences to the policy.”

 

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