For a variety of reasons, medical marijuana leads to a 9 percent drop in traffic deaths in states where it’s legal, according to a new study by economists at the University of Colorado and Montana State University. The study takes a look at statistics from the 16 states with MMJ and hints that traffic deaths decline because:

1. A lot of folks would rather smoke than drink, and marijuana use among adults (but not kids) increases with MMJ passage. This means there are more adults smoking and fewer drinking and driving.

2. Marijuana’s effect of driving ability is not as catastrophic as alcohol’s. For this, the authors compared driving course studies of both drugs. No contest. In fact, experienced pot smokers had significantly less functional impairment than noobs.

3. MMJ use usually happens in the home. People drive around a lot (drunk) to get alcohol.

The study warns that other things could contribute to the correlation between traffic death and MMJ, but it’s clear that in many ways MMJ is good for Arizona. You can read the study here.

This article appears in Dec 1-7, 2011.

More fun than FarmVille, more interesting than that Facebook friend you don't really remember from high school.

2 replies on “MMJ – Keeping the Highways Safer Since 2011”

  2. Google MARIJUANA DRIVING STUDY. You’ll see two common findings:

    1. Drivers under the influence of marijuana are VERY SLIGHTLY impaired.

    2. Unlike those under the influence of alcohol, marijuana consumers are aware they are VERY SLIGHTLY impaired and they CONSISTENTLY ADEQUATELY COMPENSATE by slowing down a little and being a little more cautious. That doesn’t mean they get in the fast lane on the interstate and drive 15 miles per hour. Marijuana makes you cautious, not crazy! Those Cheech and Chong movies were comedies, NOT documentaries!

    * Fact: The Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine document states that MARIJUANA DOES NOT CAUSE DANGEROUS DRIVING:

    * Fact: When combined 2002 to 2005 data are compared with combined 2006 to 2009 data, the Nation as a whole experienced a statistically significant reduction in the rate of past year drugged driving (from 4.8 to 4.3 percent), as did seven States: Alaska, California, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Four of these seven States have legalized medicinal marijuana, Alaska, Hawaii, Michigan and California.
    http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k10/205/DruggedDriv…

    * Fact: California led the US to a nationwide, statistically significant reduction in the incidence of “drugged” driving during a time period when the number of patients claiming the protection of the California Compassionate Use Act and SB-420 increased by a factor of 10.
    http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2011/m…

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