December 12, 2024
(press release)
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Columbus, OH: Adults express similar degrees of intolerance toward driving under the influence of marijuana, regardless of whether they live in a jurisdiction where cannabis is legal or illegal, according to survey data published in the Biometrical Journal. Researchers affiliated with Ohio State University assessed the public’s attitudes and their willingness to drive after consuming marijuana in states where medical cannabis is legal and where it remains prohibited. They concluded: “The hypothesis that more liberal marijuana policies will lead to dangerous driving conditions was not corroborated by our analysis. In all three analyses, there was practically no evidence to reject the null hypothesis and to conclude that medical marijuana legalization leads to more tolerant behaviors and attitudes toward DAMU [driving after marijuana use]. In fact, … we found practically no evidence for this hypothesis.” The researchers’ findings are consistent with those of several prior studies. For instance, a 2022 study conducted by investigators at the Research Triangle Institute reported: “Current cannabis users in recreational and medical-only cannabis states were significantly less likely to report driving within three hours of getting high in the past 30 days, compared to current users living in states without legal cannabis.” A 2021 study similarly determined that self-reported drugged driving behavior does not rise post-legalization. Rather, authors reported, “[M]arijuana users in states that legalized RM [recreational marijuana] self-reported driving after marijuana use less than their counterparts (who resided in states where adult-use cannabis remains illegal). They were also less likely to find such behavior [driving after ingesting cannabis] acceptable.” A 2020 study by researchers affiliated with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health also concluded that adults “from states with legal recreational cannabis sales had significantly lower prevalence of driving after cannabis use and higher prevalence of protective attitudes compared to those from states without legal recreational sales.” Full text of the study, “A matched design for causal inference with survey data: Evaluation of medical marijuana legalization in Kentucky and Tennessee,” appears in Biometrical Journal. Additional information is available from the NORML Fact Sheet, ‘Marijuana and Psychomotor Performance.‘
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