The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is slated to release the Bay State’s first 35 medical marijuana dispensary licenses ever on Friday. While this new industry is poised to help ease the suffering of countless residents while helping to generate more money for the state, one has to wonder how susceptible Massachusetts medicinal marijuana users may be to drugged driving.
As much as we enjoy hashing out the occasional weed pun (see?) and pondering possible themes to our ganj that coincide, for example, with the success of our sports teams, drugged driving is a legitimate concern.
A new study by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health has noticed an uptick in trends related to drugged driving, most notably with marijuana. According to findings published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the prevalence of marijuana found in drivers who were killed within one hour of an automobile crash have risen from 4.2 percent to 12.2 percent.
Keep in mind, though, that the study was based on data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System pertaining to the states of California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and West Virginia.
But what’s perhaps most interesting is that while alcohol prevalence in fatal car crashes is strikingly higher amongst men (43.6 percent compared to just 26.1 percent amongst women), the increase in marijuana was relatively equal for each gender.
“The marked increase in its prevalence as reported in the present study is likely germane to the growing decriminalization of marijuana,” opined Joanne Brady, a PhD candidate in epidemiology and the lead author of the study. Massachusetts has decriminalized marijuana up to one ounce, and while we’ve only planted the seeds of the medicinal variety, advocacy groups are already targeting the commonwealth for complete legalization ŕ la Colorado and Washington.
“Given the increasing availability of marijuana and the ongoing opioid overdose epidemic, understanding the role of controlled substances in motor vehicle crashes is of significant public health importance,” stated Guohua Li, MD, DrPH, professor of Epidemiology and Anesthesiology and director of the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention.
Under current Massachusetts law, driving under the influence of an unspecified amount of marijuana is a punishable offense on par with driving under the influence of alcohol “by a fine of not less than five hundred nor more than five thousand dollars or by imprisonment for not more than two and one-half years, or both such fine and imprisonment.”
So I put it to you, Boston. Is it likely that Massachusetts will see an increase in trends like those in the aforementioned states, which includes New England neighbor New Hampshire? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
[image via Stoner Days]
