According to a study by Quartz Advisor, states that legalized pot in 2016 saw a significant decline in traffic deaths in the years following the policy change. The results were less obvious over a longer time period, which included what the report calls “anomalies”.
The paper concluded that motor vehicle safety should not be considered a major concern when marijuana is legalized, especially compared to alcohol.
It says that “as yet, studies have not shown any significant increase in road fatalities in places where cannabis has been legalized.” Alcohol, a widely available, legal intoxicant, is not the same. It’s deeply embedded in our culture.
In states where marijuana was legalized, “traffic deaths declined or remained unchanged in the three year period that followed, as opposed to a slight rise in states that did not.”
The findings were not peer reviewed and examined data on traffic fatalities from four states which legalized adult-use marijuana in 2016: California (including Maine), Massachusetts (including Nevada) and Nevada. Quartz Advisor compared the vehicle death rates of these states to both the national average and to those in five states that had marijuana illegal at that time: Idaho, Indiana Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming.
The report states that in the three years after the change, no state legalized saw an increase of traffic fatalities. In fact, most states saw declines.
The paper reports that “Three out of four the four state saw a significant reduction in vehicle fatalities over this period, while the rate in Maine did not change.” Massachusetts had the largest drop in rates, which dropped by 28.6 percent over the three years after legalization.
From 2016 to 2019, the combined traffic deaths in the four states which legalized marijuana dropped by 11,6 percent. This is a more dramatic decline than the national median, which dropped 10.6 percent during the same time period.
This is a much better result than the five states examined in the report where marijuana was still illegal. They saw a combined increase of 1.7 percent in their traffic deaths from 2016 to 2019.
Researchers expanded their analysis to include the latest years of data available from the National Safety Council. Over the period, the rate of vehicle deaths rose in states which legalized marijuana. However, it was less than the U.S. overall. In states where cannabis is illegal, vehicle death rates have dropped.
The report states: “Among the States that Legalized Marijuana in 2016, the Vehicle Death Rate increased by 6.0 Percent between 2016 and 2021.” This is a slight increase compared to the national average of 6.2 percent. In the five states which have not legalized marijuana, the vehicle death rate has dropped on average by 0.7 percent.
Why ignore two years worth of data? The report explains the following:
In many ways, the trends in vehicular accidents for 2020 and 2021 are still true. Traffic fatalities in the U.S. increased in 2020 after decades of decreasing accident rates. They remained high until 2021. Traffic fatality rates in the U.S. increased by 18.9 percent between 2019 and 2021. States that legalized pot in 2016 also saw an increase of 19.9 %. The rate of vehicular deaths in states that haven’t legalized marijuana, and are more rural than those that did, has fallen by 2.3 percent.
It continues, “Because we felt it was important to look at the rates without 2020 and 2021 in the data set.” “And, as it turns out they look quite differently.”
Quartz Advisor described the observations as “interesting, nuanced, but ultimately limited”. The publication spoke to Judi Watters of the Maine Bureau of Insurance’s public information and consumer outreach, who pointed to a Casualty Actuarial Society December 2022 report that looked at data from the U.S.A. and Canada between 2016 and 2019.
The 2022 report states that the tests to determine the effect of decriminalization on deaths failed to detect any statistically significant changes. The analysis also showed that “there were no statistically significant differences in the average claim cost and frequency of claims after the legalization of marijuana in Canada.”
The new Quartz Advisor Report states that, “while there are no data to support that decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana will make roads safer, this does not mean that driving while under the influence of marijuana is safe.” The report cites a 2010 Meta-analysis in The American Journal of Addictions which found that marijuana “causes impairment” in “every performance area that could be reasonably linked to safe driving of a car.”
Oddly enough, driving behaviors don’t seem to be as dangerous.
The 2022 Casualty Actuarial Study concluded that although marijuana use can affect driving, the behavior of impaired drivers is not always more dangerous. For example, they may drive slower and with a longer following distance.
The American Journal of Addictions also includes a similar warning:
“Surprisingly, given the alarming results of cognitive studies, most marijuana-intoxicated drivers show only modest impairments on actual road tests,” it says. “Experienced marijuana smokers who follow a predetermined course display almost no functional impairment.”
The fact that there is no reliable test for cannabis impairment, despite the widespread concern about driving while impaired by cannabis, continues to be a major issue. It is difficult to tell from standard drug tests whether someone has been under the influence of cannabis or if they have consumed it days, or even weeks earlier.
A report submitted to Congress this summer for the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies bill (THUD), stated that “continues its support for the development of a standard objective to measure marijuana impairment and an associated field sobriety to ensure highway safety.”
In February, the American Trucking Association’s (ATA) head addressed the issue with a congressional panel . He argued that legislators need to “step-up” and address the conflicting state and federal cannabis policies as the industry is facing shortages.
data from Department of Transportation shows that tens of thousands of truckers test positive for marijuana during federally mandated drug screenings.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) was asked by Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-CO to provide an update on a federal report that looked at research barriers that were preventing the development of a standardized marijuana impairment test on the road. Under a massive infrastructure bill signed by President Joe Biden, the department must complete the report before November.
Experts and advocates say that the evidence on the link between THC levels in blood and impairment is not clear.
According to a study from 2019, those who drive with the legal THC limit, which is usually between two and five nanograms per milliliter blood, are not statistically more at risk of being involved in a car accident than people who don’t use marijuana.
The Congressional Research Service determined in 2019 that “research on the impact of marijuana use on a driver’s risk of a collision has produced conflicting findings, with some studies finding a little or no increase in risk.”
A study conducted last year concluded that the use of CBD-rich cannabis had “no impact” on the ability to drive despite the fact all participants in the study exceeded the limit per se for THC.
Photo by Carlos Grancia.
The post Traffic death rates fell in states that legalized marijuana, new study finds, while those who kept criminalization saw a’slight increase’ first appeared on Marijuana moment.
