Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Cannabis, Columbia, Opiods / 17.09.2016
Medical Marijuana Laws Linked To Lower Opioid-Related Traffic Deaths
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
June H. Kim
Doctoral candidate,Department of Epidemiology
Mailman School Public Health
Columbia University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: A previous study indicated that states with medical marijuana laws had a reduced rate of opioid overdoses. If this is true, we'd expect to see similar reductions in opioid use associated with these laws. For this study, we used data from the FARS, a national surveillance system that records any crash events on US public roads that result in a fatality. Some states provide uniform testing of the majority of their deceased drivers, year to year. Among these states, we found that there was a lower prevalence of positive opioid toxicology tests among drivers crashing in states with an operational medical marijuana versus drivers crashing in states before a future medical marijuana law is implemented, particularly among drivers aged 21-40.
(more…)