Public Health Effects of Legalizing Marijuana

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Montana State University will present “Public Health Effects of Legalizing Marijuana” for its next Friday Forum on April 9. The virtual forum will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

Mark Anderson, an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics in the College of Agriculture at MSU, will discuss the impacts to public health associated with the legalization of recreational marijuana, which occurred in Montana in November 2020. Topics that will be covered include teen marijuana use; the use of other substances such as alcohol and opioids; traffic fatalities; and mental health.

Anderson is an applied economist with research interests in health economics and economic history. His research has appeared in leading scholarly publications, such as the Journal of Political Economy, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics and Review of Economics and Statistics, as well as public health journals such as the American Journal for Public Health, American Journal of Preventative Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics. Anderson’s work has been discussed in national and international press outlets such as Time, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, CNN, NBC, ABC and the BBC.

In addition to his work on marijuana legalization, Anderson is currently studying the effects of hospital desegregation during the Civil Rights era on the black-white infant mortality gap and the effectiveness of public health interventions at the turn of the 20th century.

Advance registration is required, and attendees must register by 11 a.m. Friday, April 9. For more information or to register, please visit the OLLI at MSU website at montana.edu/olli/register. Upon registration confirmation, participants will receive an email with the Webex link and instructions to join the program.

Friday Forums are offered on the second Friday of each month, September through May, by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at MSU. OLLI at MSU is a program of Academic Technology and Outreach. ATO works across the university to support and advance its land-grant mission through unique and innovative opportunities for outreach and engagement.