A College of Iowa examine discovered that automotive insurance coverage premiums dropped in states after they legalized medical marijuana, suggesting that driving whereas excessive is probably not as harmful as driving drunk.
Cameron Ellis, professor of finance on the College of Iowa (U of I) mentioned they studied insurance coverage knowledge on the ZIP code stage and located states that made medical marijuana authorized between 2014 and 2019 noticed premiums drop by a median of $22 per driver within the first yr.
“In areas that had excessive ranges of DUIs previous to medical hashish legalization, charges fell at a a lot increased price,” Ellis mentioned, “as a result of as dangerous as marijuana is for driving, alcohol is far worse, and so it’s kind of this discount in DUIs that’s resulting in the decline.”
There are seemingly two explanations for this, Ellis mentioned, the primary being that a few of these individuals who’d been arrested for drunk driving merely modified their leisure substance of selection from alcohol to weed and that hashish and alcohol impair drivers in several methods.
“However one other potential one is that if you devour alcohol and marijuana collectively, you are likely to do it at residence,” Ellis instructed native media. “You don’t go smoke in a bar, you do it at residence and so that you’re simply actually driving much less whereas ingesting, even in case you’re not ingesting much less.”
Legalization Opponents Say All Impairment Is Harmful
Opponents of legalizing marijuana level to the hurt already attributable to individuals who drive drunk and argue legalizing one other mind-altering substance will solely result in extra crashes, accidents and deaths.
Ellis argues that the U-I examine primarily debunks that concept, as alcohol and hashish have an effect on drivers in several methods.
“There’s this trope of somebody’s like, ‘Oh, I’m a greater driver whereas I’m drunk,’ however, no you’re not, however you’re actually, actually assured and that causes lots of issues,” he mentioned, “whereas [with] marijuana famously, you’re paranoid that there are cops in all places, ‘I don’t wish to get caught, I’m going to go precisely the pace restrict.’”
Alternatively, alcohol tends to make drivers extra aggressive, whereas marijuana has a mellowing impact and makes drivers extra conscious of their inabilities, Ellis says, so that they drive slower and take fewer dangers.
The report discovered about $820 million has been saved up to now in crash-related well being expenditures on account of marijuana legalization. Ellis mentioned that if medical marijuana was legalized nationally, one other $320 million might be saved.
The examine was printed in the journal Well being Economics.
