Auto insurance coverage premiums decreased in states following the legalization of medical marijuana, in keeping with a brand new examine that builds on current analysis signaling that hashish reform is related to decreased danger of harmful driving—opposite to prohibitionist arguments.
The examine, revealed this month within the journal Well being Economics, analyzed insurance coverage knowledge from 2014 to 2019. It discovered that premiums dropped by about $22 per yr on common after states enacted legalization—and the examine authors assume which will have one thing to do with decreased drunk driving in these states, signaling a potential substitution impact whereby folks change from alcohol to hashish.
A $22 premium discount won’t appear important on its face, however the cause for that decline is what’s essential. Entry to medical hashish appears to be linked to higher highway security, which interprets into important price financial savings—each collectively for folks paying insurance coverage premiums and total for health-related expenditures associated to auto accidents.
The evaluation decided that “medical hashish legalization has decreased auto insurance coverage premiums by $1.5 billion in all states which have presently legalized, with the potential to cut back premiums by an extra $900 million if the remaining states have been to legalize”—a mixed whole of $2.4 billion in potential fee reductions for drivers underneath nationwide medical hashish entry.
“As a result of auto insurance coverage premiums are instantly tied to property harm and well being outcomes, we discover proof of a optimistic social impression of medical hashish on auto security,” the examine mentioned.
Fewer well being expenditure auto claims has additionally meant about $820 million yearly in price financial savings in authorized medical marijuana states, the examine says. And there’s the potential of an extra $350 million in annual financial savings if hashish is legalized throughout the nation.
“Our outcomes point out that the legalization and entry to medical hashish positively impacts auto security.”
What makes this examine distinctive is that it focuses on auto insurance coverage tendencies, whereas most analysis into the connection between marijuana reform and highway security have checked out knowledge on site visitors fatalities. That paints an incomplete image, nonetheless, the researchers mentioned, as a result of a small fraction of automotive accidents concerned fatalities.
“The present literature misses over 99.5 % of auto crashes,” the brand new study says. “Auto insurers cowl 67 % of all medical and property harm from car accidents. By means of this lens, we paint a extra complete image.”
The zip code-based evaluation discovered that reductions in annual premium prices is “stronger in areas instantly uncovered to a dispensary, suggesting elevated entry to hashish drives the outcomes.”
“As well as, we discover comparatively massive declines in premiums in areas with comparatively excessive drunk driving charges previous to medical hashish legalization,” the examine says. “This latter result’s in step with substitutability throughout substances that’s argued within the literature.”
Cameron Ellis, a co-author and researcher at Temple College, informed Marijuana Second that he believes “the principle takeaway is that, regardless that driving whereas excessive is harmful, medical hashish legalization can truly make the highway safer by decreasing the prevalence of drunk driving sufficient to outweigh it.”
“Our outcomes point out the rise in auto security is due, at the very least partially, to a lower in DUI of alcohol.”
But it surely’s not simply the substitution impact principle that’s in play. Whereas research have persistently discovered that folks use hashish as an alternative choice to different medication, together with alcohol and pharmaceuticals, the opposite issue could possibly be that even individuals who use each alcohol and marijuana are “extra prone to keep dwelling or go to deal with events, as a substitute of consuming at bars,” Ellis mentioned.
“The person results we discover are very small ($22 per yr in your auto insurance coverage), however they undoubtedly add up since so many individuals have auto insurance coverage,” he mentioned.
Researchers from the College of Arkansas at Little Rock and Jap Kentucky College additionally participated within the examine.
Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, informed Marijuana Second that the brand new findings are “in step with these of prior analyses assessing the connection between medical hashish entry and site visitors security exhibiting no uptick in motorcar accidents, and in some cases, a downturn in accidents—notably these particular to these driving inebriated or opioids.”
A separate current examine discovered that states which have enacted legalization are seeing much less driving underneath the affect of marijuana than states which have maintained criminalization.
The examine’s key limitation is that it’s based mostly on self-reported DUIC knowledge, however the outcomes nonetheless run counter to each prohibitionist arguments towards legalization and a current congressionally enacted directive on the place public consciousness campaigns ought to be focused amid the reform motion.
President Joe Biden signed a large-scale infrastructure invoice late final yr that included an modification encouraging states which have enacted legalization legal guidelines—and solely these states—to educate folks about impaired driving. That measure was criticized by advocates who equally need to discourage driving underneath the affect of hashish however who additionally really feel that any public training campaigns on the difficulty ought to be holistic, slightly than singling out states which have legalized.
Specialists and advocates have emphasised that proof isn’t clear on the connection between THC concentrations in blood and impairment.
A examine revealed in 2019, for instance, concluded that those that drive on the authorized THC restrict—which is usually between two to 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood—weren’t statistically extra prone to be concerned in an accident in comparison with individuals who haven’t used marijuana.
Individually, the Congressional Analysis Service in 2019 decided that whereas “marijuana consumption can have an effect on an individual’s response instances and motor efficiency…research of the impression of marijuana consumption on a driver’s danger of being concerned in a crash have produced conflicting outcomes, with some research discovering little or no elevated danger of a crash from marijuana utilization.”
One other current examine discovered that smoking CBD-rich marijuana had “no important impression” on driving capacity, even though all examine individuals exceeded the per se restrict for THC of their blood.