Marijuana Legalization May Improve Road Safety

Marijuana Moment reported that traffic death rates fell in states that legalized marijuana, Quartz Advisor published a study that focus on examined traffic fatality data from four states that legalized adult-use cannabis including California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada. Then compared those states’ vehicle death rates to the national average as well as to rates in five states where marijuana remained illegal during that period: Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming. Ultimately, the paper concludes, motor vehicle safety “should not be a significant concern for marijuana legalization initiatives,” especially when measured against alcohol.

“Three of four the four states saw a significant decrease in vehicle deaths over that span,” the paper says, “while the rate in Maine showed no change. Massachusetts saw the biggest drop, as rates fell 28.6 percent in the three years following legalization.”

Combined, the four states that legalized marijuana saw an 11.6 percent drop in traffic death rates from 2016 to 2019. That’s a sharper decline than the national average, which fell 10.6 percent over the same period. That’s a far better outcome than in the five states the report examined where marijuana remained illegal, which together experienced a 1.7 percent increase in their combined traffic death rate from 2016 to 2019.

Meanwhile Australia M.P. calls for changes to driving rules for medicinal cannabis users to avoid drug-driving charges, arguing current laws “unfairly” targets patients. Which medicinal cannabis users still had trace amounts of the drug detectable in their system long after the effects had diminished.

Furthermore the head of Cannabinoid Therapeutics at the University of Sydney, Iain McGregor, said laws and legislation should be updated to make life easier for medicinal cannabis users as he pointed towards overseas jurisdictions like the UK, Norway, Germany, Ireland and New Zealand that allow exemptions for patients.

Data and Picture origin at marijuana moment, perthnow, canadadrives, cannatrek