Emergency Room Drug Episodes:

possession of marijuana. This article uses standard metropolitan statistical area (SMSA) level data on hospital emergency room drug episodes collected by the Drug Abuse Warning Network to measure the effect of changes in drug penalties on substance abuse c r i s e s. The regression models demonstrate that marijuana decriminalization was accompanied by a significant reduction in episodes involving drugs other than marijuana and an increase in marijuana episodes. Although possible biases in the data preclude firm conclusions, the results suggest that some substitution occurs towards the less severely penalized drug when punishments are differentiated. KEY WORDS: Drug Abuse Warning Network; Drug policy; Marijuana decriminahzation; Substitution. Drug control policy in the United States is generally for-mulated under the assumption that such policies are effective in influencing drug use. This is accomplished through tra-ditional economic channels; the fact that the possession or sale of an illegal substance carries the risk of arrest and con-viction serves to increase the cost of these goods. As penalties increase, the cost of the substance may rise as sellers require greater compensation for dealing in illegal goods, while buy-ers must also incorporate possible penalties into their ful