Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Cannabis, JAMA, NYU/NYMC / 23.06.2020
Increase in Traffic Fatalities Linked to Cannabis Laws Vary by State
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Julian Santaella Tenorio, MSc DrPH Epidemiology
Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy
Division of Epidemiology, Department of Population Health
New York University Langone School of Medicine,
New York, New York
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Response: This study found that recreational cannabis laws were associated with increases in traffic fatalities in Colorado (mean of 75 excess fatalities per year) but not in Washington State. These findings suggest that unintended effects of recreational cannabis laws can be heterogeneous and may be specific to variations in how these laws are implemented
(eg, density of recreational cannabis stores).
Response: This study found that recreational cannabis laws were associated with increases in traffic fatalities in Colorado (mean of 75 excess fatalities per year) but not in Washington State. These findings suggest that unintended effects of recreational cannabis laws can be heterogeneous and may be specific to variations in how these laws are implemented
(eg, density of recreational cannabis stores).
Response: It is well known that marijuana usage impairs driving ability, yet the early studies of the effects of recreational marijuana legalization on traffic fatalities were inconclusive.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Response: By analyzing data over a longer time period, we found that the legalization of recreational marijuana increased traffic deaths in the first four states to legalize. Traffic fatalities increased about 20% in those states. If we apply these numbers to the nation as a whole, nationwide legalization would be associated with about 7,000 excess traffic fatalities each year.
Dr. Vandrey[/caption]
Ryan Vandrey, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD 21224
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The background for this study is that 33 states in the U.S. have legalized medicinal cannabis use and millions of people are using cannabis for therapeutic purposes, but we have very little data on the broad health impacts of medicinal cannabis use.
We surveyed medicinal cannabis users and non-using controls who had a variety of health problems and found that the cannabis users reported better health, quality of life, and less healthcare utilization compared with controls. Because we worried about group characteristics accounting for the differences observed, we then did an analysis of people who switched groups over time (e.g. non-users who later initiated cannabis use or cannabis users who later quit) and found the same differences emerged in the same individuals over time. Important to note here is that not all individuals who used cannabis benefited from it and that most participants were using high CBD varieties of cannabis in conjunction with more traditional treatments.
Dr. Filbey[/caption]
Francesca Filbey, PhD
Associate Provost and Professor of Cognition and Neuroscience
Bert Moore Chair
The University of Texas at Dallas
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Studies have reported differences in how males and females respond to cannabis and how they develop problems related to cannabis use. We sought to determine whether craving may underlie this difference in male and female cannabis users.
Dr. Hollingsworth[/caption]
Alex Hollingsworth PhD
Assistant Professor
O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Indiana University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: I've been working with Coady Wing and Ashley Bradford on a few different studies of the effects of recreational marijuana laws on drug and alcohol use.
Soon after EVALI became a major issue, the prevailing theory from the CDC and others was that EVALI was caused by the use of vitamin E acetate in illegal THC vaping products.
Our group read about this and we thought about some of the things that often happen in black markets for illegal drugs. For instance, during the alcohol prohibition era, bootleg alcohol producers often made and sold alcohol products that were not that safe to drink. In more recent years, there are cases where black market sellers of illegal drugs like heroin try to increase profit margins by adding other substances, which can be harmful.
We thought that maybe something like that could be happening in EVALI. Perhaps people in states where recreational marijuana is legal tended to purchase marijuana products from the legal market and the legal market was not selling any marijuana vaping products that included vitamin E acetate.
Ruibin Lu
Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice
Stockton University
Absecon, New Jersey
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: We are witnessing a trend of legalizing marijuana in the United States and in the world. Many states have either legalized recreational marijuana or are considering it. At the same time, there are concerns about what will happen to our society if weed is legal. One of the concerns is about crime rates: are we going to experience more or fewer crimes after legalizing recreational marijuana? This is a legitimate question that we should consider when making cannabis-related public policies. Our research provides a preliminary answer to this question. It analyzes crime rates before and after the legalization using rigorous scientific methods and provides more information on how marijuana legalization may affect crime rates.
