Why medical marijuana reduces traffic fatalities
By Maia Szalavitz, Time
States that legalize medical marijuana see fewer fatal car accidents, according to a new study, in part because people may be substituting marijuana smoking for drinking alcohol.
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia, have legalized medical marijuana since the mid-1990s. For the new study, economists looked at 1990-2009 government data on marijuana use and traffic deaths in the 13 states that had passed legalization laws during that time period. The data were from the National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Comparing traffic deaths over time in states with and without medical marijuana law changes, the researchers found that fatal car wrecks dropped by 9 percent in states that legalized medical use — which was largely attributable to a decline in drunken driving. The researchers controlled for other factors like changes in driving laws and the number of miles driven that could affect the results.
Medical marijuana laws were not significantly linked with changes in daytime crash rates or those that didn’t involve alcohol. But the rate of fatal crashes in which a driver had consumed any alcohol dropped 12 percent after medical marijuana was legalized, and crashes involving high levels of alcohol consumption fell 14 percent.
Two major lies about marijuana are exposed in this excellent TIME magazine article.
First, stoned drivers are safer, much safer actually, than drunk drivers. That’s because marijuana has the opposite effect on drivers that alcohol does. The biggest risk of people who smoke and drive is that they tend to drive below the speed limit. However, the bottom line is that in states where medical marijuana is legal, drivers tend to replace alcohol use with marijuana use, resulting in a 9% drop in fatalities.
Second, in states where medical marijuana laws have been enacted, teen use does not go up. In fact, it goes down by as much as 47%.
In California — which has the longest-term, most detailed data available — the number of ninth graders reporting marijuana use in the last 30 days declined by 47% from 1996 (when the state’s medical marijuana law passed) to 2004. An analysis commissioned by the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs found “no evidence supporting that the passage of Proposition 215 increased marijuana use during this period.”
http://www.ukcia.org/research/ImpactOfStateMMJLaws.pdf
What a total crock of crap! Really? Let’s all drive around STONED! What is wrong with people? I have seen “pot” destroy the lives of people I love. It is a mind altering drug, not the answer to everything. I feel so bad that so many in Tahoe have this mentality. It makes it hard for people addicted and trying to get off this drug feel comfortable getting help because they are constantly hearing that you can’t get addicted. I live down the street from one of our towns “collectives”. I rarely, if ever, have seen the poor cancer patient or person with a cane going to get relief…what I see ALL the time is the pierced, tattooed, unemployed going there for their free hot dogs and weed. Sorry if I’ve offended anyone… This is just MY opinion.
I agree with you Lisa. That has pretty much been what I’ve seen also. We all know it is just a big joke and that any money hungry MD will sell you a Medical Marijuana Card. They don’t have that many ill people in Tahoe that want pot
to need 3 Collectives.
What a crazy opinion article. Driving drunk, on pot or any other drug is still driving under the influence.
On last count I heard that there were 15,000 medical marijuana clients in our 3 “clinics” ….where do they come from? I’d love to know how many of those people have a prescription on file at more than one “clinic.”
I walk by people in town more that reek of pot than used to smell of alcohol.
What message are we sending to our valued tourists? Come to HIGH elevation?
While I do not agree with legalization, I do agree with decriminalization. However, this opinion piece has to be the silliest argument for the marijuana issue that I have ever seen. Not many people would think to advocate driving under ANY influence.
But it is not just walking by them or seeing them drive, it is in our neighborhoods: nothing like walking out your front door and the skunk odor fills the air and the culprits are 1/2 a block away or more.
All for legit medical use, but this invasion into our homes is ridiculous.
Driving under the influence of your cell phone is just as bad! Just followed a FOOL through the Y intersection doing 10mph (!) for a whole block, jabbering away about SOMETHING way too important on his phone to even realize he had a parade of people behind him piling up.
Driving impaired by anything, alcohol, drugs, phones, passengers, is BAD.
Oh here we go again. Kubby: You are a zealot who can’t listen to anything that disparages pot. Your posts are constantly lacking objectivity.
You can’t tell me that more people smoking an intoxicant than before will make it safer on the roads.
I’m curious if the studies took into account the gap in police training on identifying those under the influence of pot vs. alcohol. While there is and always has been loads of training available for cops to ID alcohol DUI’s, IDing those under pot and other drugs is harder and there is less training.
You fokes know of course that it cost $$$$ to enforce laws. That said, in this time of no money, let go after the people that cause the most serious and or deadly results. Marijuana is nowhere near the top of that list so there is no cost benitit until we go after the uses of substances higher on that list.
I do not understand the arguring about the pot situation ,It is going to stay on this planet for ever, Get over it , and get on ,It will be smoked until who ever does it for ever,It is a plant and it will never go away, about being busted for it , what a waste of time on the law to do it, Our money pays for those who are in Jail , because of pot ,think about it, Its a Government scam AND MONEY and thats the way it is , so Be it, and get on with something else, POT IS HERE TO STAY, KEEP THAT IN MIND.FOR EVER AND EVER ,AMEN .
The War on Drugs failed $1 Trillion ago! This money could have been used for outreach programs to clean up the bad end of drug abuse by providing free HIV testing, free rehab, and clean needles. Harmless drugs like marijuana could be legalized to help boost our damaged economy. Cannabis can provide hemp for countless natural recourses and the tax revenue from sales alone would pull every state in our country out of the red! Vote Teapot, PASS IT, and legalize it. Voice you opinion with the movement and read more on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/01/vote-teapot-2011.html