The legalization of cannabis in the state opened several opportunities and challenges across various sectors. Public health officials and stakeholders have raised concerns regarding legal cannabis regulation and steps that need careful consideration. Public health policymakers have, broadly, two approaches that they can use when deciding how to regulate legal cannabis. One approach is to treat cannabis like tobacco and seek to reduce or eliminate its use among the population. An alternative policy approach would be to treat cannabis like alcohol. Rather than try to eliminate its use among the public, the focus of this type of policy would be to mitigate the harms that might emerge from over or inappropriate use. It is unclear what approach will ultimately be adopted for cannabis use. However, from a rational policy perspective, the decision should consider the risks and benefits of cannabis use, as well as the public’s perceptions, including tradeoffs that people are willing to make when making decisions about personal cannabis consumption and use among others in the society in which they live. This dissertation aimed to provide information on the risks and benefits, and perceptions of cannabis use to inform the policy discussion. The first chapter examined the relationship between cannabis and alcohol consumption and expands its investigation on identifying the relationship between tobacco and vaping over three-time periods and across three regions in California: Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and Rural San Joquin Valley. The second chapter, through a discreet choice experiment (DCE) explored the tradeoffs and preferences that individuals are willing to make in a pain treatment decision, while promoting greater access and use of cannabis for medical and/or recreational purposes and the increased risks that can come with greater use. The third and final chapter employed information from the second chapter to perform marginal probabilities that explicitly explored policy options that would encourage cannabis over opioids. The results from this dissertation found that treating cannabis like alcohol will result in a more tolerant approach.