New Study Shows Marijuana’s Effect On Crash Risk Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

[Robrites]

Pot prohibitionists frequently warn that legalization will flood the roads with dangerously stoned drivers, leading to a surge in traffic fatalities. So far there is not much evidence of such a surge in Colorado or Washington, where marijuana was legalized in 2012. A new study may help explain why: It looks like marijuana’s impact on traffic safety has been greatly exaggerated.
Reporters and anti-pot activists commonly warn that marijuana use doubles the risk of a car crash. Even if that were true, toking would pale in comparison to drinking as a road hazard, since research indicates that a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10% quintuples the risk of an accident. But according to an analysis that’s about to be published by the journal Addiction, the increase in crash risk associated with marijuana use is roughly 20% to 30%, as opposed to the widely cited estimate of 92%.
That estimate comes from a 2012 BMJ meta-analysis by Canadian epidemiologist Mark Asbridge and two of his colleagues at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Ole Rogeberg and Rune Elvik—who work, respectively, at the Ragnar Frisch Center for Economic Research and the Norwegian Center for Transport Research, both in Oslo—did a new meta-analysis of the nine studies covered by the BMJ article, taking into account additional confounding variables. As they explain, “Using cannabis and driving under the influence are behaviours that are more common among young adults and males, groups with higher crash risks irrespective of use. Estimated odds ratios typically decline substantially after adjustments for such factors.” That is what happened in this case, and it’s the main reason Rogeberg and Elvik’s results differ from Asbridge’s.
Rogeberg and Elvik also took another look at a 2012 Epidemiologic Reviews article, likewise based on a meta-analysis of nine studies, in which Mu-Chen Li and other researchers at Columbia University’s medical school estimated that marijuana use increases crash risk by 166%. Rogeberg and Elvik found that “the pooled studies report qualitatively different types of associations: Self-reported crashes in some past period for cannabis ever-users vs. never-users, self-reported crashes in a past period for those with self-reported intoxicated driving episodes in the past vs. those without, and acute intoxication amongst crash-involved and other motorists.” They conclude that “the lack of clear study selection criteria…gives the resulting pooled estimate no meaningful interpretation.”
https://www.washingtoncannabis.xyz/

 

[Tynehead Tom]

I've been driving for 30 years this year...... been a 24/7 toker for 26 years..... I have had an average daily consumption rate of 4 to 14 grams of good weed every day the entire time.
I have never had a vehicle accident/ claim against me , have full road star (ICBC) and haven't had a traffic ticket since I was 19, but wait, I didn't start smoking hash and weed till I was 20 LOL.
I see those "High driver" adds on tv here in BC claiming high drivers are responsible for something like 30% of traffic related deaths..... nothing but propaganda. The fear mongers are hard at work.

 

[Mikell]

Dalousie didn't earn that nickname for nothing.

 

[jesbuds]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...d-since-marijuana-was-legalised-10499069.html

What’s notable here is that the totals so far in 2014 are closer to the safest composite year since 2002 than to the average year since 2002. I should also add here that these are total fatalities. If we were to calculate these figures as a rate — say, miles driven per fatality — the drop would be starker, both for this year and since Colorado legalised medical marijuana in 2001. While the number of miles Americans drive annually has leveled off nationally since the mid-2000s, the number of total miles traveled continues to go up in Colorado. If we were to measure by rate, then, the state would be at lows unseen in decades.

The figures are similar in states that have legalised medical marijuana. While some studies have shown that the number of drivers involved in fatal collisions who test positive for marijuana has steadily increased as pot has become more available, other studies have shown that overall traffic fatalities in those states have dropped. Again, because the pot tests only measure for recent pot use, not inebriation, there’s nothing inconsistent about those results.

 

[Robrites]

Seven zip so far.

 

[Pinball Wizard]

1979: I was driving stoned for the first time that alcohol wasn't involved.
I had a a little accident. I had to get out and ask the witnesses what happen.

I have never drove stoned again ..(with Thai weed)

 

[Sforza]

Anyone who has ever driven drunk and driven high on pot, knows that there is so much more danger in driving drunk than driving on high on pot.

When drunk, you are careless and even though your abilities are impaired, you drive faster than when you are sober. When high, you get paranoid and worried about getting into an accident and concentrate on what you are doing and drive slower and more careful than when you are sober.

It is not just driving. When you get drunk, you cannot even walk across a room without banging your knee against the couch. If you go on a bender, you wake up the next morning not only with a terrible hangover, you also have all these bruises from banging into things, which you do not even remember banging into.

When you smoke to get high, when you get as high as you want to get, you stop, and are happy. When you drink, at first you are happy and sociable, but because the first few drinks not only put you into a good mood, they also impair your reasoning ability, so that you keep drinking to keep the good mood, but instead, you get drunk and obnoxious and that is not any fun at all.

I am old now, so I don't drink enough to get drunk anymore, but I sure did do it often enough in the past to understand how easy it is to go from a little buzzed with some good company, to being a sloppy drunk.

Think how much domestic violence would go down if people didn't drink alcohol but smoked ganja instead. On that point alone, women should demand the legalization of cannabis. If we got woman demanding that ganja is made legal, we would get it passed in no time, since the Good Lord knows that women get what they want.

 

[_tessarecting]

Rollin down the street
Smokin endo

 

[CoCoSativas]

Ive smoked so much weed behind the wheel and never come anywhere near having any time of accident and in 11 years of driving never have gotten a ticket or traffic parking fine.

Now its legal for me to smoke fope and drive now i have a perscription it falls into the same category as any other perscription drug that can cause intoxication, long as you pass a sobriety test you have nothing to worry about.

Havent been driving mych since i got back on the oxy thats way worse to drive on... opiates and driving, scary...

 

[Jellyfish]

Maybe in a hundred years, after we're all dead, society will be able to put cannabis in proper perspective.

 

[paper thorn]

i don't even believe that you are 20 - 30 % more likely to wreck your car. Been driving after smoking for ...ok a really long time. no problems.
I don't smoke while driving any more. I don't even carry any more unless I'm taking meds to my patients.
Weed does not make you drunk.

 

[_tessarecting]

Statistics vs. Individuality

 

[aridbud]

I don't drive after toking, but when I did, recall driving slower.

Pot & alcohol....yep, did that in my 20's-30's. Knock wood....never pulled over.

If I smoke, I stay where I am.

In CO, you can be pulled over for not having DUI, but suspected.....forget the term.

 

[Skip]

They need controlled studies that rule out any accidents that involve other drugs as well as alcohol. Opiate and prescription drug use has now become a leading cause of car accidents.

Where are the results of studies on THOSE DANGEROUS DRUGS?
Compare cannabis users vs opiate users and accidents.
Control for novice and experienced users, quantity of THC in blood, age of drivers, etc.

We can believe that marijuana users have FAR FEWER accidents than drivers who drink or use opiates. That's the bottom line and what counts!

 

[stoned-trout]

blah I drove cars all day back and forth, new from lot to rustproofing shop then back repeat and been driving 30 plus years...no marijuana accidents...no accidents at all on my record...and I toke a lot .....yeehaw

 

[Picarus]

These parts of the law are not necessarily for the regular / seasoned user (i.e. members here), but they do have their place. I think a lot of regular users drive without consequence, but do you remember the first time the effects hit you? Driving then would have been a different story. Without the warnings first time users could assume they should have no issue getting behind the wheel when under the influence and I don't think that should be the case. With the changing of the guard in terms of cannabis demonization and law, I hope that more people will enjoy the benefits of this plant, and a little caution is a good thing. Ask me about when my cousin visited and decided to eat an edible.

 

[redlaser]

If 20 -30% is accurate it's still a significant number. The way I look at it is, "what is an acceptable level of an intoxicant for a driver to have in his system when they drive their car into someone I care about". The answer for me is zero, so that's how much I use while driving. I would agree weed is less dangerous than alcohol or pills for driving generally though. Really depends on the smoker though/experience level and dosage. Done my share of driving buzzed before forty, but have also been hit by inattentive drivers three different times, with plenty of broken bones and plates from it.

 

[armedoldhippy]

i've driven high AND while smoking for over 40 years. only times i even came close to an accident was when someone did something stupid in front of/behind me. folks on cell phones, reading the paper, putting on mascara, turning around to smack their kids in the back seat etc. on the other hand, i've had several close calls riding around straight as an arrow, going too fast, not seeing stop signs etc. i drive MUCH slower on average if high, pay much more attention. it is much more dangerous to drive while tired/mad than after smoking IMHO.

 

[Aether]

What's the intoxication level...i can drive legally and safely after one or two bottles of beer but after 4 four shots of vodka...shit could go haywire, right?! Bad thing about weed and testing it, the metabolites that they test stay in the system for up to a week...could one use this as a defense in court? x)

 

[mowood3479]

I've known more than a few people who I wasn't comfortable being a passenger with them sober... I think I would be even less comfortable with those people if they were really high on pot...
So I guess what I'm saying is how can anyone know whether being high caused a specific accident. Correlation isn't causation kinda thing... That's why I think the whole discussion is pointless... So many people drive who are horrible at it.