Several things you WON’T BELIEVE about Marijuana Legalization and Traffic Fatalities

From the moral panic division of ClubTroppo.

Early Evidence on Recreational Marijuana Legalization and Traffic Fatalities

Over the last few years, marijuana has become legally available
for recreational use to roughly a quarter of Americans. Policy
makers have long expressed concerns about the substantial
external costs of alcohol, and similar costs could come with the
liberalization of marijuana policy. Indeed, the fraction of
fatal accidents in which at least one driver tested positive for
THC has increased nationwide by an average of 10 percent from
2013 to 2016. For Colorado and Washington, both of which
legalized marijuana in 2014, these increases were 92 percent and
28 percent, respectively. However, identifying a causal effect
is difficult due to the presence of significant confounding
factors. We test for a causal effect of marijuana legalization
on traffic fatalities in Colorado and Washington with a synthetic
control approach using records on fatal traffic accidents from
2000-2016. We find the synthetic control groups saw similar
changes in marijuana-related, alcohol-related and overall traffic
fatality rates despite not legalizing recreational marijuana.

by Benjamin Hansen, Keaton S. Miller, Caroline Weber – #24417 (HE LE)