Spokane, WA: The legalization of the adult-use cannabis market is not associated with upticks in either serious or fatal motor vehicle accidents, according to data published in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention.
A researcher affiliated with Gonzaga University’s School of Economics and Business analyzed county-level vehicle crash data for the three-year period immediately prior to and following the allowance of retail marijuana sales in Washington state.
The author identified “no statistically significant impact of cannabis sales on serious injury/fatal crashes” following retail commercialization. By contrast, the author did identify a relationship between retail sales and an increase in non-injury collisions.
“Cannabis legalization led to fewer fatal, serious, and minor injury collisions,” the study’s author concluded. “Although cannabis use generally increased in Washington State following legalization/commercialization, survey data suggest that driving behavior while under the influence of cannabis did not change significantly over the post-commercialization period.”
The study’s conclusions are consistent with recently published data from Canada finding that the enactment of adult-use marijuana sales is not associated with any increase in motor vehicle injuries requiring hospitalization. By contrast, other assessments from the United States evaluating longer-term trends in traffic safety following legalization have yielded mixed results.
Full text of the study, “Collisions and cannabis: Measuring the effect of recreational marijuana legalization on traffic crashes in Washington state,” appears in Traffic Injury Prevention. Additional information is available from the NORML Fact Sheet, ‘Marijuana and Psychomotor Performance.’