from the National Association of State Mental Health Directors Research Institute (n.d.). State unemployment rate and health insurance coverage were coded as percentages. BAC limit policies, marijuana decriminalization policy, and zero-tolerance policies were coded using dichotomous indicators. Beer and cigarette excise taxes, percapita income and per-capita mental health spending were coded as dollar amounts. Mental health spending data were available only for years 1990, 1997 and 2001–2010; missing years were estimated via linear interpolation. The smoke-free air policy measure was obtained by summing scores for policies covering private worksites, restaurants, and bars and ranged from 0 to 6, representing the sum of a two point scale for each domain (0 for no policy, 1 for restrictions with less than a complete ban, and 2 for a complete ban; International Agency for Research on Cancer, 2009). The political orientation measure was coded as described in (Berry et al., 1998).
