Marijuana legalization associated with a decrease in traffic deaths

[Cain]

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[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

OH, SHIT. BEAR? WTF ARE YOU UP TO?

[AFK]

Driving while impaired by marijuana creates silly amounts of risk to the driver and, ergo, others on the road.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/02/09/smoke-and-mirrors-driving-while-on-marijuana-doubles-ones-chances-of-a-serious-car-crash/

In addition to the finding that drivers who had recently smoked pot were substantially more likely to be involved in a serious accident, the researchers found that those who had died in these crashes had higher amounts of the drug's compound tetrahydrocannabinol than those who survived.

[Reginald Ret]

Driving while impaired by marijuana creates silly amounts of risk to the driver and, ergo, others on the road.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/02/09/smoke-and-mirrors-driving-while-on-marijuana-doubles-ones-chances-of-a-serious-car-crash/

In addition to the finding that drivers who had recently smoked pot were substantially more likely to be involved in a serious accident, the researchers found that those who had died in these crashes had higher amounts of the drug's compound tetrahydrocannabinol than those who survived.

I'm glad to see we all agree that driving stoned is less stupid than driving drunk but still very stupid. I am glad you finally came around.

[AFK]

I don't agree with that premise at all.  Driving impaired is driving impaired.  Tacitly encouraging people to drive stoned is reckless and irresponsible.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html

http://www.borkensteincourse.org/faculty%20documents/DubowskiCrashRisk.pdf

If I'm reading this correctly, acute marijuana use doubles your risk of an accident, while drinking can increase it by as much as 140 times over (after that you're well into alcohol poisoning territory).

Can someone with a better science brain read these things and make sure I'm not being an idiot?

[Cain]

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[The Good Reverend Roger]

IMO, doing ANYTHING to impair your driving is stupid.

I don't think anyone here is arguing that people should drive stoned.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

IMO, doing ANYTHING to impair your driving is stupid.

I don't think anyone here is arguing that people should drive stoned.

So much THIS. If any causation is involved here, perhaps its that people who are stoned make the more 'paranoid/conservative' decision not to drive, whereas people who are drunk make the more stupid decision to drive impaired.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

IMO, doing ANYTHING to impair your driving is stupid.

I don't think anyone here is arguing that people should drive stoned.

So much THIS. If any causation is involved here, perhaps its that people who are stoned make the more 'paranoid/conservative' decision not to drive, whereas people who are drunk make the more stupid decision to drive impaired.

Assumes facts not in evidence.  My suspicion is that people tend to smoke at home, rather than go out, but there's no data supporting that, or even solid proof that there's causation here at all.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

IMO, doing ANYTHING to impair your driving is stupid.

I don't think anyone here is arguing that people should drive stoned.

So much THIS. If any causation is involved here, perhaps its that people who are stoned make the more 'paranoid/conservative' decision not to drive, whereas people who are drunk make the more stupid decision to drive impaired.

Assumes facts not in evidence.  My suspicion is that people tend to smoke at home, rather than go out, but there's no data supporting that, or even solid proof that there's causation here at all.

Which is why I said 'if'

As far as I can tell there are lots of conflicting reports on the topic and none of them seem to have anything other than correlation.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yeah, all we know is that there is a strong and remarkable correlation between legalization of marijuana and a decrease in drunk driving deaths. We don't know WHY. It seems very likely that many people are choosing to smoke pot instead of to drink (confirming that would come back around to finding out whether alcohol sales will drop in states which have legalized marijuana, which we probably won't have firm data on until 2016), and if that is the case, the next step would be to determined whether they are smoking pot and not driving, or smoking pot and driving with less dangerous outcomes than with drinking and driving.

[Demolition Squid]

Of course, the interesting questions are - if marijuana becomes legalized the world over - what effect will this have on fatal plane accidents? Is it better to pilot a passenger jet stoned than dead drunk? Does it make airline food more tolerable? These are the hidden upsides the anti-legalization lobby doesn't want you to know about.

[Cain]

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[Demolition Squid]

If we couldn't, I'd like to hear another reason Big Oil has been donating so much money to the anti-legalization movement.

Hemp production largely ceased in 1938. Global warming has skyrocketed in that same period. Coincidence? You decide.