Substitution and Complementarity in the Consumption of Alcohol, Cannabis, and Opium

Abstract Understanding the behavior of populations of drug consumers has been and remains a topic of keen interest. Using a unique dataset on 25 districts from Bengal, India, from 1911 to 1925, we analyze whether populations of consumers treat alcohol, cannabis, and opium as economic substitutes or complements in a legal regime. Additionally, we examine responsiveness to prices and income. Our analysis has three main findings. First, we find evidence of substitution between alcohol and cannabis bud. Second, cannabis leaf