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As you probably know - admit it, it's what you check in the news every morning - more and more states are either legalizing weed for recreational use or thinking about it, while most have already done it for medical reasons.
However, since this is completely new in the U.S., nobody has any real idea on how it will affect traffic safety. Common sense tells you most people won't refrain from driving their vehicles after smoking a joint, so does that mean you're more likely to get hit by a stony-eyed guy?
Well, it depends on who you ask. It appears the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) already thought about it and so had the data from three states where recreational pot usage has been approved analyzed (via thecarconnection).
The three in question are Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, and the results show there is indeed a hike in the number of registered car crashes. The HLDI looked at the data before and after weed use became legal, and also compared the growth in the number of incidents with what happened in the neighboring states that still frown upon the use of marijuana.
Colorado had it the worst with a 14 percent increase compared to the adjacent states, while Washington saw a six percent tick and Oregon only four. HLDI put all the information together and came up with an average of three percent more collisions following the legalization of marijuana.
But leave it to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to clear the waters. In a report of its own, the official government institution says there is no real correlation between drug use and any increase in traffic incidents. The paper states: "When the crash risk analysis was adjusted for other well-known risk factors, such as age, gender, race, and ethnicity, there was no longer a statistically significant difference in crash risk associated with the presence of these drugs. This finding indicates that these other variables (age, gender, race, and ethnicity) accounted for the detected increase in risk."
It also offers a very important insight that further supports its findings: "Alcohol use was highly correlated with increased crash risk, even after adjusting for other known risk factors."
The NHTSA isn't stopping here, though. It plans to come up with ways to determine whether a person driving is under the influence of the drug or not, and also to which degree. It also needs to set a threshold over which intoxication can be considered a crime, much like with alcohol, and it all needs to be backed by science. Which takes time.
And since we're on the subject of drugs and science, I was very close to ending with a short and famous Jesse Pinkman quote (from Breaking Bad). But I won't because we don't know each other that well.
Well, it depends on who you ask. It appears the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) already thought about it and so had the data from three states where recreational pot usage has been approved analyzed (via thecarconnection).
The three in question are Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, and the results show there is indeed a hike in the number of registered car crashes. The HLDI looked at the data before and after weed use became legal, and also compared the growth in the number of incidents with what happened in the neighboring states that still frown upon the use of marijuana.
Colorado had it the worst with a 14 percent increase compared to the adjacent states, while Washington saw a six percent tick and Oregon only four. HLDI put all the information together and came up with an average of three percent more collisions following the legalization of marijuana.
But leave it to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to clear the waters. In a report of its own, the official government institution says there is no real correlation between drug use and any increase in traffic incidents. The paper states: "When the crash risk analysis was adjusted for other well-known risk factors, such as age, gender, race, and ethnicity, there was no longer a statistically significant difference in crash risk associated with the presence of these drugs. This finding indicates that these other variables (age, gender, race, and ethnicity) accounted for the detected increase in risk."
It also offers a very important insight that further supports its findings: "Alcohol use was highly correlated with increased crash risk, even after adjusting for other known risk factors."
The NHTSA isn't stopping here, though. It plans to come up with ways to determine whether a person driving is under the influence of the drug or not, and also to which degree. It also needs to set a threshold over which intoxication can be considered a crime, much like with alcohol, and it all needs to be backed by science. Which takes time.
And since we're on the subject of drugs and science, I was very close to ending with a short and famous Jesse Pinkman quote (from Breaking Bad). But I won't because we don't know each other that well.
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