When momentum toward the legalization of recreational cannabis use in Canada gained traction before the Cannabis Act was passed, those opposed to the concept suggested—among many other concerns—that it could lead to more impaired driving, especially among youth.

In particular, the Canadian Automobile Association’s 2016 poll indicated, “Almost two-thirds of Canadians are concerned that roads will become more dangerous [due to cannabis impairment] with the legalization of marijuana”.

 

This concern was compounded by the fact that a 2012 report by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health revealed that by the last year of high school, nearly half (46%) of Ontario students admit to having used marijuana in the past year.

 

Three years since the passage of the Cannabis Act, researchers in Canada released the result of a study that looked at traffic injuries in youth before and after cannabis was legalized in the country, and found no significant jump.

 

In “Canada’s cannabis legalization and drivers’ traffic-injury presentations to emergency departments in Ontario and Alberta, 2015-2019” published in the Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal in November, it was found that the implementation of the Cannabis Act was not associated with evidence of significant post-legalization changes in traffic-injury emergency department visits among all drivers—or youth drivers in particular. 

The research focused on the only two provinces in the country that capture all emergency department visits—Alberta and Ontario. Covered in the study were 14-to-17-year-olds in Alberta, and 16-to-18-year-olds in Ontario. Researchers looked at years of data from April 2015—three years before the medical and recreational cannabis use was allowed in Canada—to December 2019 or a year after the law’s passage.

 

The study, headed by University of British Columbia professor Dr. Russ Callaghan, states that following cannabis legalization, there was, in fact, a decrease of 0.66 in the weekly average visits among youth drivers in Alberta to the emergency department. In Ontario, there was an increase in the weekly average of youth drivers presenting to the emergency department — but that increase was only by 0.09 visits.

 

When it came to looking at data which include all drivers, instead of just youth drivers, there was a slightly higher increase in traffic injuries. In Alberta, the weekly average of visits increased by 9.17 after legalization. There was a weekly average increase of 28.93 visits in Ontario. There were more than 52,000 and more than 186,000 drivers that suffered a traffic injury in that time period in Alberta and Ontario respectively.

 

Dr. Callaghan said he was slightly surprised by the results.

 

“I predicted that legalization would increase cannabis use and cannabis-impaired driving in the population, and that this pattern would lead to increases in traffic-injury presentations to emergency departments,” he said in a statement.

Does Marijuana legalization increase traffic accidents? Dr. Callaghan cautions that other factors may have contributed to such a slight change in numbers.

 

“It is possible that our results may be due to the deterrent effects of stricter federal legislation, such as Bill C-46, coming into force shortly after cannabis legalization. These new traffic-safety laws imposed more severe penalties for impaired driving due to cannabis, alcohol, and combined cannabis and alcohol use.”

 

 

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