2. Marijuana users were able to drive straight and not have any
trouble staying in their own lanes when driving on the highway,
according to a NHTSA done in 1993 in the Netherlands. The study
determined also that the use of marijuana had very little affect on the
person’s overall driving ability.
3. Drivers who had smoked marijuana were shown to be less likely to
try to pass other cars and to drive at a consistent speed, according to a
University of Adelaide study done in Australia. The study showed no
danger unless the drivers had also been drinking alcohol.
4. Drivers high on marijuana were also shown to be less likely to
drive in a reckless fashion, according to a study done in 2000 in the UK
by the UK Transport Research Lab. The study was done using driver on
driving simulators over a period of a month and was actually undertaken
to show that pot was a cause for impairment, but instead it showed the
opposite and confirmed that these drivers were actually much safer than
some of the other drivers on the road.
5. States that allow the legal use of marijuana for medical reasons are noticing less traffic fatalities; for instance, in
Colorado and
Montana there has been a nine percent drop in traffic fatalities and a five percent drop in beer sales.
The conclusion was that using marijuana actually has helped save lives! Medical marijuana is allowed in 16 states in the U.S.
6. Low doses of marijuana in a person’s system was found by tests in
Canada in 2002 to have little effect on a person’s ability to drive a
car, and that these drivers were in much fewer car crashes than alcohol
drinkers.
7. Most marijuana smokers have fewer crashes because they don’t even
drive in the first place and just stay home thus concluded more than one
of these tests on pot smoking and driving.
8. Marijuana smokers are thought to be more sober drivers. Traffic
information from 13 states where medical marijuana is legal showed that
these drivers were actually safer and more careful than many other
drivers on the road.
These studies were confirmed by the University of Colorado and the
Montana State University when they compared a relationship between legal
marijuana use and deaths in traffic accidents in those states. The
studies done by a group called the Truth About Cars showed that traffic
deaths fell nine percent in states with legal use of medical marijuana.
(To view our study on Drunk Driving vs. Alcohol-Related Traffic Deaths, click here.)
9. Multiple studies showed that marijuana smokers were less likely to be
risk takers than those that use alcohol. The studies showed that the
marijuana calmed them down and made them actually pay more attention to
their abilities.
All of these tests and research studies showed that while some people
think that marijuana is a major cause of traffic problems, in reality
it may make the users even safer when they get behind the wheel!
10. Marijuana smoking drivers were shown to drive at prescribed
following distances, which made them less likely to cause or have
crashes.
Every test seemed to come up with these same results in all of the
countries they were done in. Even so, insurance companies will still
penalize any driver in an accident that has been shown to have been
smoking pot, so this doesn’t give drivers free reign to smoke pot and
drive.
So, the bottom line is that while alcohol has been shown in every
single incident to have major problems and to have caused countless
traffic crashes and fatalities, pot smoking overall has had none of
these issues and in fact may make drivers pay more attention, drive
slower and straighter and perhaps even stay home so they can’t be in an
accident at all!
