In 2017, Atlanta decriminalized misdemeanor amounts of marijuana. Previously, possession of an ounce or less could result in a fine of up to 1, 500 and a year in jail under Georgia state law. After decriminalization, the penalty in Atlanta was reduced to a maximum 75 fine with no jail time. We employ two-way fixed effects and synthetic difference-in-difference methods to analyze the impact on Atlanta’s crime rates, using other Georgia cities still enforcing state law as a control group. Our findings suggest that decriminalization led to a reduction in violent crime and violent crime clearances, likely due to police reallocating resources from marijuana enforcement to violent crime prevention—aligning with claims by the Atlanta Police Department.
Meehan et al. (Thu,) studied this question.