Recreational Marijuana Legalization: The Effects on Fast Food Businesses

The present thesis investigated the effect, if any, that recreational marijuana legalization laws had on fast food businesses and whether the legalization of such laws differed from the previous year's annual profit recorded from Yum! Brands. We compared annual profit margins from Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut before and after the legalization process. Here show that the legalization of recreational-specific marijuana did not seem to affect the profit margins of these restaurants. Interestingly, during the time periods investigated, some of the restaurants’ profits decreased because of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on the economy. Since interest in this topic is increasing in popularity more research needs to be done to understand just how much, if any, marijuana legalization laws affect any fast-food restaurants