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The War on Drugs resulted in increased arrest rates for women. Most of these arrests have been for low-level offenses, often involving cannabis. As states legalize cannabis, it is important to examine trends in arrests for women in a setting of early cannabis law reform. We examine National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) monthly cannabis arrest rates in Colorado, one of the first two states to legalize cannabis for recreational purposes, from January 2010 through December 2016 using an interrupted time series approach. The interruption is conceptualized as the legalization of recreational marijuana in December 2012. Our results document an immediate statistically significant and sizable drop in cannabis-related arrests for women following legalization. However, troublesome racial and ethnic disparities persist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has begun to explore to what extent I-502, the initiative authorising the retail distribution of recreational marijuana in Washington State, influenced a range of public safety outcomes. However, despite a growing body of research exploring potential impacts on crime, absent from this research has been a more nuanced analysis of officer workload. Specifically, an analysis into calls for service received and initiated by police. To document to what extent I-502 is associated with changes in the type of calls police agencies respond to, this research uses an interrupted time series, to analyse data provided from two border-straddling cities (Pullman, WA, and Moscow, ID). Findings indicate that recreational sales of marijuana is associated with noteworthy changes in police resourcing in the legalised state setting and the magnitude of those changes vary based on call type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]