The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3 - 107

Marijuana Laws

DIscUssIOn AnD
RecOMMenDATIOns
though punitive actions should be at the forefront of substance abuse-adjacent issues like
campus sexual assault, results from this study
indicate that administrators, student affairs
practitioners, and policymakers tasked with
curbing drug and alcohol abuse on campus
should give significant attention to the potential negative impact of state laws on groups
with limited agency in the policymaking
process. Coupled with individual behavior and
campus culture, appropriate interpretation of
and response to rapidly changing state marijuana policies is of particular concern. results
enumerated above put into question the effectiveness of relaxed state marijuana laws in the
college setting, as higher numbers of drug and
alcohol violations in on-campus housing were
found to be associated with the availability
of recreational and medical marijuana, even
after controlling for alcohol taxes in the case
of alcohol offenses. While this study does not
pinpoint the exact cause of that relationship,
the large number of students who are minors
living in on-campus housing presents one
possible theory.
following studies on alcohol use among
minors (e.g. Komro et al., 2007), the association between legal marijuana and increased
violations simply could be related to access.
in that case, the liminal period of pseudoadulthood in which individuals are exposed to
environments that encourage substance abuse
and yet are not entitled to legally possess or
use marijuana could impose burdens on the
large number of college students living in oncampus housing. similarly, as in studies on

alcohol (Bryden et al., 2012), exposure to say,
a recreational marijuana shop near campus in
Boulder, Colorado or related advertising also
may affect use among minors. in either situation, reformative marijuana policy has been
designed with explicit punitive burdens on a
relatively narrow group of individuals, whether
in college and on-campus or not. such discrepancies also introduce possible psychosocial/
medical explanations like the gateway drug
theory, as well as geographic patterns in drug
and alcohol consumption. following osgood
et al. (1996), a deeper analysis of micro-level
behaviors impacting marijuana use on cam-

. . . the liminal period of pseudoadulthood in which individuals
are exposed to environments that
encourage substance abuse and
yet are not entitled to legally
possess or use marijuana could
impose burdens on the large
number of college students living in
on-campus housing . . . . reformative
marijuana policy has been designed
with explicit punitive burdens
on a relatively narrow group of
individuals, whether in college and
on-campus or not .

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3

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