A Spatiotemporal Analysis of the Association of California City and County Cannabis Policies with Cannabis Outlet Densities

ABSTRACT: Background: Cannabis outlets may affect health and health disparities. Local governments can regulate outlets, but little is known about the effectiveness of local policies in limiting outlet densities and discouraging disproportionate placement of outlets in vulnerable neighborhoods.

Methods:

For 241 localities in California, we measured seven policies pertaining to density or location of recreational cannabis outlets. We geocoded outlets using web-scraped data from the online finder Weedmaps between 2018 and 2020. We applied Bayesian spatiotemporal models to evaluate associations of local cannabis policies with Census block group-level outlet counts, accounting for confounders and spatial autocorrelation. We assessed whether associations differed by block group median income or

SUBMITTER: Matthay E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9345518 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature