http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...lities-in-colorado-are-at-near-historic-lows/ "Near historic" may be a slight embellishment since it only counts from 2002, but it's definitely below average, and that's a good thing. Pretty interesting stuff. No surprise really. People get baked, and they are more cautious on the road. People get drunk, they drive like assholes and put lives at risk. More stoners = safer roads... or is it just coincidence? You be the judge.
I don't think it's because you become more cautious. When I smoke, I don't want to do a damn thing, especially not going out driving somewhere. I plan ahead. Pick up food, sit down, put a movie on, and smoke. I never leave my spot until I go to bed.
Drinking / Smoking and driving both impair your judgement on the road. However, I believe Alcohol impairs it 100x more then Marijuana. I know from experience (which makes me an asshole).
I'm a legalization supporter for the most part but that's some really raw data. It's insulting to intelligence of readers to just give us that little tidbit and think we will be satisfied with some of the conclusions the author is making. It's like reading something you would give to an 8th grader to make him think. A) it's only fatalities they are looking at- not accidents and they are only going from 2002. All of which seems odd, pieced together data. B) the only link to marijuana legalization is the years 2013 and 2014. It's a huge jump to assume that because marijuana just so happened to be legal in those years, that is why there is less fatalities. (honestly it's pretty close to the average anyway) C) They didn't tell us in the article anything about the other years. Was the highest fatality rates mostly from 2002, 2003, etc.? If so maybe it's just because cars are safer now... maybe less people are on the roads? There are numerous factors that can contribute to a traffic fatality that this article and graph ignores.
So folks should be forced to smoke before they drive? If you're on the pot, do you get a discount on your car insurance? _
That is definitely part of it. Another part is paranoia. I'll take the paranoid stoner that drives under the limit over the reckless drunk any day. Some folks do drive better when high than sober. There have been studies done on this as well, where they did a driving test with people and the stoned drivers did the best, the sober in the middle, and the drunk the worst. I find that when I smoke, my concentration level as a whole goes up. It's different for everybody but I personally drive better while stoned than sober. I just pay more attention to detail. Of course it greatly depends on the quality of weed, the amount you smoke and how it affect you personally. Some folks smoke and they pass out right way. Some get motivated and do chores or art. Browning brings up some good points, this certainly isn't the be all end all, however it's interesting because one of the arguments that many folks have used against legalization is that it will lead to more impaired drivers thus more accidents and deaths, however we actually see the opposite in this case and while it doesn't prove it, it very highly suggests what I have suspected all along.
The price of gas is high and has been high over the course of the two-year period. It could just be less people driving around when they have nothing better to do.
Colorado also passed an approval for civil unions in 2013. I'm going to make the assumption that gay drivers are safer than straight drivers. That's how dumb and lightly researched that article is.
I think gay couples are more careful, pay greater attention to detail. And they do more chores and art. Everyone knows heterosexual couples are crazy reckless drivers. _
Based on the above data it seems fatalities have increased a little since January when people were first able to legally buy. Can't see how anyone is trying to make the correlation that fatalities have gone down since it became legal. Just to add, anyone that wanted to actually do a valid study would have surely made note of the steady decline in fatalities nationwide since it peaked around 2002-2006 2002-38,491 2003-38,477 2004-38,444 2005-39,252 2006-38,648 2007-37,435 2008-34,172 2009-30,862 2010-30,296 2011-29,867 2012-30,800 About a 20% drop before weed was legal. This was due to harsher penalties, more PSA's, adolescent education on the subject from what I would guess.
You spent way too much time responding to a flawed and ultimately poster-biased thread. I do drive more carefully whilst getting a digital rectal exam. _
Probably did take too much time even though it only took a few minutes. I already knew the numbers were way down just had to pull them from NTSB site. How anyone could think the original chart proved anything is funny.
