The number of car crash injuries has shot up by nearly six percent in states that have legalized recreational cannabis use — the latest study in a slew of negative reports to sound the alarm over the dangers of decriminalization.
Research this week from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety revealed a 5.8 percent rise in traffic crashes in Colorado Washington, Oregon, California and Nevada after those states legalized cannabis and ‘pot shops’ sprang up.
It was the latest in a series of studies on everything from teenage addiction to injuries and unhealthy relationships to cast doubt on this week’s Democratic effort to end the federal prohibition on cannabis.
Cannabis advocates say the drug has health benefits and is far less harmful than alcohol, which is legal. It is also a lucrative business, expected to net $30 billion in the US last year, offering windfall taxes for states that allow sales.
‘The legalization of marijuana doesn’t come without cost,’ said Charles Farmer, the lead researcher on the car crash survey, which compared traffic data from 2009 to 2019 in states that both legalized and kept up restrictions on the drug.
Legalization ‘removes the stigma of marijuana use’ and makes it readily available, leading to more intoxicated and less-attentive drivers with slower reaction times and a tendency to veer outside their lanes, he said.
Overall, the five named states saw a 4.1 percent rise in fatal crashes. The increases were not universal. The worst-affected state, Colorado, saw a 17.8 percent jump in crash injures. In California, incidents rose by 5.7 percent.
Cannabis is slowly gaining legalization in America, with use being allowed in some form in all but six U.S. states
‘States legalizing the recreational use of marijuana need to make it very clear, through education and strict enforcement, that not all uses are legal,’ Farmer told DailyMail.com.
Another study this week from The City University of New York and Columbia University — in a state that legalized recreational marijuana last year but has yet to let dispensaries sell it — found that cannabis use grows faster after legalization.
Professor Renee Goodwin, the study’s lead author, said cannabis use was ‘markedly more prevalent’ in states where recreational use was legal and warned of a ‘potential explosion’ of users as it became treated as normal.
She warned against states ‘rapidly passing legislation’ bills without letting people know how to use cannabis safely and of its ‘potential health risks’ — whether smoked in joints, vaped or eaten as edible gummies.
A University of Michigan study this month raised alarms that children as young as nine were becoming curious about trying marijuana. Many were influenced by ‘messaging from parents’ who did not impose rules on drug use, researchers said.
Also this month, University College London and King’s College London researchers revealed that adolescents were more than three times as likely as adults to get addicted to cannabis, increasing their chances of experiencing depression or anxiety.
Another study from Canada, where cannabis use has risen since it was decriminalized in 2018, showed that users of the drug were 22 percent more likely to end up in a hospital emergency room than others — often due to a serious injury or breathing problems.
Lead author Dr Nicholas Vozoris, of the University of Toronto, said responsible officials ‘should discourage recreational’ use and ‘remind citizens about the harmful impacts of cannabis on health’, he said last month.
The UN’s annual world drug report last month warned against cannabis legalization, saying it ‘accelerated’ use and upped chances of depression and suicide. The world body also said the booming multibillion dollar cannabis industry was producing ever-more potent products.
An unusual study last month from Rutgers University found that cannabis users ‘misperceive’ how well their romantic relationships are faring, and tend to be more critical, demanding, defensive and negative when rowing with loved ones.
Even the often-touted benefits of cannabis are being called into question. Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University last month reported there was ‘very little scientifically valid’ proof that cannabis-related products relieved chronic pain in sufferers.
The trove of research can be seen as a wake-up call in a nation that is increasingly tolerant and even supportive of cannabis use — walking even a few blocks in New York or San Francisco nowadays often yields a nose-full of pungent marijuana smoke.
Nearly half of all US citizens now live in states where they can buy cannabis in a recreational market, and all but 13 states have legalized medical use. President Joe Biden this month said marijuana users should not go to jail.
Pro-legalization campaigners have slowly won the debate over the decades, with 58 percent of Americans now backing legalization, compared to the 28 percent who are against, according to a YouGov poll this month.
This week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, introduced a bill to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, saying moves in some states to permit the drug had ‘proven immensely successful’.
The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, allow states to make their own laws, and enact government monitoring rules akin to those for tobacco and alcohol. The bill’s passage is far from certain.
The bill comes after decades of seemingly fruitless efforts to crack down on the drug trade, often by heavy-handed police operations that land disproportionate numbers of minorities behind bars.
Cannabis fans say they should be able to choose what they take, that police waste too much time on pointless marijuana busts, and that the drug can help relieve everyone from cancer victims to traumatized veterans.
It is also a big business. Research firm BDSA projects legal cannabis sales to hit $30 billion this year, and $47.6 billion by 2026, surpassing the craft beer industry.
Taxes on sales net states coffers hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Still, Scott Chipman, from the campaign group, Americans Against Legalizing Marijuana, warned against the push for legalization and of its ‘many negative and dangerous’ effects on millions of Americans.
His group points to myriad social woes, from violent crime to mental illness, young addicts, marijuana firms producing super-strength drugs and targeting children as well as more intoxicated drivers on the roads.
‘It is particularly concerning how the marijuana user impacts the lives of those around them,’ Chipman told DailyMail.com.
‘Ask yourself, at what level of consumption would you feel safe being a passenger in a car with a driver who is using a psychotropic drug?’
This example of wreckless driving in Draper, Utah, in June 2019 was linked to a motorist using Xanax and marijuana. States like Colorado that have legalized cannabis use have seen higher rates of road injury and death
A woman who was under the influence of marijuana when she caused a head-on collision in San Diego, California, that killed a passenger of another other car in March 2016 was later convicted of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated
Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday introduced a bill that would federally decriminalize marijuana and allows states to set up their own regulations on the cannabis industry. Researcher Charles Farmer (right) says car crash injuries and deaths have increased in states where recreational cannabis is legal
Leo Paquette, owner of Fire on Fore, a medical marijuana dispensary in Portland, Maine. Retailers like this have been setting up shop across the U.S. as rules against cannabis are relaxed