Traffic fatalities on a high after cannabis legalization
February 5, 2019
Science Daily/Monash University
Legalizing the sale of cannabis for recreational use can lead to a short-term increase in traffic fatalities in legalizing states and their neighboring jurisdictions, new research suggests.
The researchers looked at the number of additional deaths each month after legalisation, and found there was on average one additional traffic fatality per million residents, in comparison to states that had not changed cannabis laws. The increase was temporary, seeming to last for about a year following legalisation. The combined population of affected areas is 27 million people, suggesting an additional 170 deaths in the first six months after legalisation.
But the study reported the spill over effects to be slightly larger in neighbouring states and provinces, particularly those with population centres closest to the border of a legalising state -- possibly because cannabis users were driving interstate to make purchases, before returning under the influence.
It's called 'cannabis tourism', and Monash University's Dr Tyler Lane says there are important implications for both legalising states and their neighbours as prohibitions against cannabis use are lifted globally.
"The effect of cannabis legalisation on traffic fatalities is a growing public health concern," Dr Lane said.
"The results suggest that legalising the sale of cannabis for recreational use can lead to a temporary increase in traffic fatalities in legalising states. This spills over into neighbouring jurisdictions through cross-border sales, trafficking, or cannabis tourists driving back to their state of residence while impaired.
"Our findings suggest that policymakers should consult with neighbouring jurisdictions when liberalising cannabis policy to mitigate any deleterious effects."
Dr Lane said the findings were in contrast to research on medicinal cannabis suggesting it decreases traffic fatalities.
One reason for the difference may be that medicinal users tend to substitute cannabis for other substances, including alcohol, which has a greater effect on impairment. Recreational users are less likely to substitute and more likely to combine alcohol and cannabis, which has a much bigger effect than either in isolation.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190205090524.htm
Positive policing changes after cannabis legalization
Marijuana arrest rates were already on the decline but plummeted after Colorado and Washington authorized retail sales late in 2012. Credit: David Makin, Washington State University
July 24, 2018
Science Daily/Washington State University
Washington State University researchers have found that marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington has not hurt police effectiveness. In fact, clearance rates for certain crimes have improved.
Clearance rates -- the number of cases solved, typically by the arrest of a suspect -- were falling for violent and property crimes in the two states before they authorized retail sales of marijuana late in 2012. The rates then improved significantly in Colorado and Washington while remaining essentially unchanged in the rest of the nation, according to the researchers' analysis of monthly FBI data from 2010 through 2015.
"Our results show that legalization did not have a negative impact on clearance rates in Washington or Colorado," said David Makin assistant professor in WSU's Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology "In fact, for specific crimes it showed a demonstrated, significant improvement on those clearance rates, specifically within the realm of property crime."
Writing this month in the journal Police Quarterly the researchers said legalization created a "natural experiment" to study the effects of a sweeping policy change on public health and safety.
"If you think about our history, it's rare where you have something that is entirely illegal that then becomes legal," said Makin. "And we have an opportune moment to study to what extent that particular change had on society."
Citizens in 12 states have voted on marijuana legalization and proponents in all of them have argued that it would let police reallocate resources to property and violent crimes. The Colorado measure specifically says it is "in the interest of the efficient use of law enforcement resources" while the Washington one says it "allows law enforcement resources to be focused on violent and property crimes."
The WSU study bears that out. It finds that after legalization:
· Arrest rates for marijuana possession dropped considerably. Following legalization in 2012, they dropped nearly 50 percent in Colorado and more than 50 percent in Washington.
· Violent crime clearance rates shifted upward.
· Burglary and motor vehicle theft clearance rates "increased dramatically."
· Overall property crime clearance rates jumped sharply and reversed a down ward trend in Colorado.
The improvement in burglary clearance rates is particularly striking for Washington, Makin said, as the state's property crime rate is higher than most.
"It demonstrates just how critical these types of policy changes can be," Makin said. "I would offer it truly demonstrates why we need empirical data to support these types of studies, so we can understand to what extent crime and communities are influenced as more and more states move to legalization."
As Makin describes, this research is not without its limitations. He offers "one of the pressing limitations within this study is that not all agencies equally report their clearance rates. It is entirely possible that as we expand our data collection to include additional years, more states, and a wider set of agencies, these results could change."
Makin also acknowledged that while he and his colleagues found a correlation between legalization and clearance rates, they do not have an explicit cause. The improvements could be the result of more overtime for law enforcement officers, new strategies or a focus on particular crimes. But Makin said he suspects that the loss of the specific reporting category of marijuana arrests prompted police departments to reevaluate their priorities, particularly in "boots on the ground" cases.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180724110031.htm
Legal cannabis laws impact teen use
June 27, 2017
Science Daily/The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
A new study by researchers at Dartmouth has found that adolescents living in medical marijuana states with a plethora of dispensaries are more likely to have tried new methods of cannabis use, such as edibles and vaping, at a younger age than those living in states with fewer dispensaries. The study will appear in the August issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
"This study was driven by two motivations -- the need to understand if and how the shifting legal landscape of cannabis may affect kids, and the potential utility of social media as an epidemiological sampling method," says Jacob Borodovsky, a PhD candidate at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health, and the lead author of the study. "If it is true that certain components of legalization change the way young people use cannabis, then we need to devote more resources to understanding the important consequences (good or bad) of the specific provisions included in the diverse cannabis laws that are emerging across the country."
Borodovsky and colleagues examined associations between provisions of legal cannabis laws (such as allowing dispensaries, home cultivation, etc.) and cannabis consumption patterns among youth using online surveys distributed through Facebook, which proved to be a reliable method for generating geographically diverse samples of specific subgroups of cannabis-using youth.
"Our data suggest a relationship between the degree of regulatory oversight of legal cannabis and kids' propensity for trying new ways of using cannabis," Borodovsky says. "I think we need to start having a broader national conversation about how best to design the production and distribution regulations for legal cannabis to mitigate potential public health harms."
As cannabis legalization rapidly evolves, in both medical and recreational usage, understanding the laws' effect on young people is crucial because this group is particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of marijuana and possesses an inherent elevated risk of developing a cannabis disorder.
"Using social media to disseminate web surveys is a useful epidemiological research method. It allows us to quickly collect geographically diverse data on cannabis-related questions that aren't asked in the traditional federally-sponsored drug use surveys," Borodovsky says. "My hope is that we can use these and other types of results to create rational legal cannabis laws that are based on data rather than anecdotes."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170627105316.htm