Legal pot and car crashes: Yes, there's a link

[McFuu]

I'm not fan of this whole legalize weed BS going on across the country, but correlation does not imply causation.

A more likely rise in car accidents is because all these retards who are moving to CO so they can smoke pot is causing increased traffic congestion.

[Pony Soldier]

Could be the weed definitely depending on how high they are but it could just be because it's a distraction just like a cell phone would be. Maybe they're rolling a joint, preparing their bong or whatever all while driving. Why do people right away have to jump on the weed itself? I mean yes obviously if you are super high you're most likely going to hit something or someone but I put my bets on the fact that it's just an added distraction and people are focusing more on their joints/bongs/bowls than their driving.

[Wildtree]

Highway Loss Data Institute...

That is an organization that works for the insurance industry.
Just saying. If you want to believe in "data", then, maybe, look into really independent scientific data, and not one that's paid for by businesses.
All this "study" aims for is higher premiums for states with legalized pot.

[VooDsXo]

And those examples are all things that really can't be prevented by law, things that a society needs to do to function today, or climate changing and perhaps affecting driving conditions, etc. Those are strawmen to set up and conveniently knock down.

Cell use while driving however is not necessary, is preventable, and has been shown to be a contributing factor to accidents.

Anything can be prevented by law, in China they allow how many kids per family? I mean by U.S. law we can't prevent anything, only punish the action.

[Caolela]

Anything can be prevented by law, in China they allow how many kids per family? I mean by U.S. law we can't prevent anything, only punish the action.

What? There are thousands of things that laws prevent from happening in the U.S., like lead being put in paint or selling a car without seatbelts or unauthorized entry into certain places. I don't know why some of you are keeping this thing going, it's just about all been said.

[Teraparte]

Driving while intoxicated should always be a felony. These people will get high/drunk and kill, paralyze or hurt you or your loved ones because they needed to get their fix. Fine if people wanna do drugs... go shoot up heroin, smoke crack, and drink liquor all day for all I care but don't expose others to that stuff while controlling an automobile. If you do, for so irresponsibly endangering the lives of others you deserve a felony.

[Xandrigity]

problem is weed doesn't show up on a breathilizer, the best we can do right now is narrow it down to the last couple days.

No drug does but that doesn't keep cops for arresting you for dui. Fail a field sobriety test is failing a field sobriety test. A breathalyzer isn't mandatory. Look at tiger woods.

[kail]

Weed impairs you. Wait that's news?

[SL1200]

http://www.fox32chicago.com/news/263603883-story

By: Lauren Reid
POSTED: JUN 23 2017 04:10PM CDT
UPDATED: JUN 24 2017 09:06AM CDT
According to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health, states with legalized recreational marijuana do not have a greater increased rate of car accident deaths than states that prohibit the drug.

Researchers in the study compared auto crash fatalities in states where recreational marijuana is legal, such as Colorado and Washington, and compared it to data in states where the drug is still illegal.

According to researchers, there is no significant difference in fatality rates between the two groups.


“This is the first time researchers have actually looked at the real-life effects to see if there have been any major population changes in injuries on the road after marijuana was legalized in these states,” said Jayson Aydelotte, MD, lead study author and trauma surgeon at Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas.

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“No one has looked to see if actual crashes and deaths happened more frequently yet,” he said.

In previous studies, research was mostly conducted under more controlled conditions. Researches would focus on the effect of marijuana would have on a driver's ability on a closed course, not on the open road.

According to researchers, more research is needed in this area to draw even stronger conclusions.

Anyone can find a study that supports their point of view.

[Gaidax]

So basically, people are still concerning themselves with what others do.

Wha??

Yeah? I don't want some random pothead run me over? Shoot me, I guess?

[Ripster42]

Is no one else concerned that each data point relative to its own control group (neighboring states that don't allow recreational marijuana) is higher than their average compared to the total control group (all states neighboring the 3 states that don't allow recreational marijuana)? This doesn't strike anyone else as odd? This isn't a huge red flag to anyone else that this study seems like it's completely full of shit?

[Malkiah]

Yeah? I don't want some random pothead run me over? Shoot me, I guess?

if they did, they'd only be going 7 miles an hour so it wouldn't matter much.

i actually live in denver, and yes there seems to have been an increase in traffic accidents, but the city has also had like a 20% spike in population over the last couple of years and the traffic infrastructure is absolutely not equipped to handle it.
pot or not, you'd expect a hue spike in accidents in a geographically small but densely packed region that gets a huge population spike in a short period of time.

by all the warning signs and PSAs they keep bleating around here, texting and driving is causing way more accidents than stoned driving.

[Gaidax]

by all the warning signs and PSAs they keep bleating around here, texting and driving is causing way more accidents than stoned driving.

One does not void another. You don't, by any chance, approve driving under influence, do you? That would explain things.

[Mistame]

Wha??

Yeah? I don't want some random pothead run me over? Shoot me, I guess?

If you actually pay attention to what you're quoting, in the context of how it was posted, you wouldn't be confused. It's OK, you're not alone. Anyhow, my point was that the general inflection of the OP and some subsequent posts is, "See? Weed IS bad!" Of course driving under the influence should be illegal, regardless of what you're on, as I've already stated had you read further.

[Sky High]

cool, so treat it as you do alcohol. what's to even discuss here.

[prwraith]

Someone no doubt will come in here and say that it's not the marijuana that caused it. It was clearly the way the planets were aligned while smoking the marijuana cause the crashes.

Or i'll say is it MORE dangerous than alcohol? and drunk drivers, less or equally dangerous?

Because unless you can prove it's MORE dangerous than alcohol than you have no business condemning pot but forgetting to an alcoholic consumption.

[SinAscendant]

While I agree you shouldn't be driving while under the influence, this study doesn't prove anything at all.

If there were, for example, more instances of drivers at accident scenes being stoned, then that would help prove something. Or more arrests for marijuana DUI. But saying "oh well pot was legalized and also accidents went up" doesn't prove anything. Correlation does not imply causation, as usual.

The increased accident stats in Colorado could EASILY be caused by, you know, the fact that a lot more people are on the road because they're coming in from out of state because of marijuana tourism? More drivers = more deaths. Or it could be that people who would normally be in jail for smoking pot are not in jail, and they're bad drivers. Or it could simply be a natural increase, 3% does not seem out of the realm of possiblity. For example, here in Florida crashed went from 374k in 2015 to 395k in 2016; that's an increase of 5.6%. And they were 344k in 2014; that's an 8.7% increase.

Also, if you actually do research you'll see that accidents had already started increasing in CO as of 2012, two years before legalization.

And if you do more research, you'll also find that Colorado's DUI law includes marijuana, and there was no increase in DUI crashes in 2014 at least, the latest year with data.

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/csp/crash-trends

In fact, there were more DUI crashes in 2011 and 2012 than there were in 2014.

So like I said, I don't think it's safe to drive under the influence no matter what that influence is, but there is also no evidence showing a significant problem.