Are Cannabis Dispensaries in Maricopa County, Arizona Concentrated in Socioeconomically Deprived Areas?

Adult use of cannabis was legalized in Arizona on November 3, 2020. The goal of this thesis was to assess the distribution of licensed adult use (recreational) cannabis dispensaries in Arizona as it relates to area deprivation in the state. On June 30, 2021, the vast majority of licensed adult ust dispensaries (n=92/143) were located in Maricopa County, so our analyses focused only on Maricopa County. ArcGIS Pro was used to map the dispensaries and determine the local density of dispensaries in each Maricopa County block group. We used three complementary statistical analyses, which collectively showed that adult use cannabis dispensaries were disproportionately located in areas of higher socioeconomic deprivation in Maricopa County. These results may have implications for existing health disparities.The study was limited because we did not account for geospatial autocorrelation, we did not assess unlicensed dispensaries, and we did not control for zoning laws. In future studies we plan to account for all three of these limitations to better understand the placement of adult-use cannabis dispensaries within Arizona. Future studies will also compare these results to the distribution of off-premise alcohol outlets and cannabis-related hospitalizations in Arizona.