A slight increase in deadly US car crashes has been found to exist on April 20 after 4.20 pm, which is widely known to be the unofficial ‘high holiday’ of marijuana users, an analysis of 25 years of data found.
The 25-year time span studied coincides with shortly after the first publication of 4/20 as a cannabis culture holiday in High Times magazine, in 1991.
The study lacks evidence on whether cannabis use was involved in any of the additional ‘420’ crashes, but notes that higher blood concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a chemical present in marijuana, have been found to decrease reaction times, and can therefore impair driving ability.
Previous studies have also shown that many pot-using motorists drive after smoking or otherwise ingesting weed, and think it’s safe to do so.
‘Policy makers may wish to consider these risks when liberalizing marijuana laws, paying particular attention to regulatory and enforcement strategies to curtail drugged driving,’ said lead author Dr. John Staples at the University of British Columbia.
A slight increase in deadly US car crashes has been found to exist on April 20 after 4.20 pm, which is widely known to be the unofficial ‘high holiday’ of marijuana users, an analysis of 25 years of data found; In this photo, a ‘budtender’ displays cannabis at the Higher Path medical marijuana dispensary in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles on December 27
The study, which was published on Monday on JAMA Internal Medicine’s website, analyzed US government data on fatal traffic accidents from 1992 through 2016.
The study compared the number of driver deaths April 20, with the number of driver deaths on April 13 and April 27, during the study period.
‘We examined a quarter-century of national data and found a 12 percent increase in the relative risk of a fatal traffic crash after 4.20 pm on April 20, compared with identical time intervals on control days [of April 13 and 27],’ a summary of the study’s findings read.
Other studies have found a similarly elevated risk linked with alcohol and driving on Super Bowl Sunday and New Year’s Eve, the study said.
Most accidents had no police data on drug testing so there’s no way to confirm that marijuana was involved, but researchers think the drug was responsible for some crashes.
‘It’s a really relevant question to be thinking about now since legalization seems to be progressing across the United States and in Canada,’ Staples said.
Marijuana is legal for medical use in most US states and in Canada.
Marijuana is legal for medical use in most US states and in Canada; Recreational use has been legalized in nine states plus Washington, DC and is expected to become legal in Canada in July
Recreational use has been legalized in nine states plus Washington, DC and is expected to become legal in Canada in July.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, marijuana can impair driving ability.
However, the US agency also notes that directly linking marijuana use with car crashes can be difficult because it’s often used while drinking alcohol, as well.
An earlier survey of college freshmen found that driving after marijuana use and riding with someone using pot was common, especially among young men, and more common than alcohol-linked driving.
And a 2014 study in six states found that marijuana was increasingly detected in drivers killed in car crashes during a 10-year period.
It’s a recognized risk in Colorado, where voters approved legalizing it in 2012.
Last year the state’s transportation department partnered with Lyft and a pot industry group to offer discounted rides for pot users partaking in 4/20 festivities. The program runs through April this year.
Data shows that 15 percent of DUI arrests in Colorado last year involved marijuana, and a 2016 survey found that about half of users in the state think driving under the influence of pot is safe.
Dr. Andrew Monte, an emergency medicine physician and toxicology expert at the University of Colorado, said his hospital typically sees a slight increase in marijuana-using patients on April 20, but that vomiting and intoxication are more common reasons than car crash injuries.
Still, he said the study offers an important message about how commonplace, and accepted, cannabis use has become in America.
‘We think about cannabis as being ubiquitous in our society,’ he said. ‘However we need to realize that people should not be using this and driving.’
The origins of the now-widely publicized date and time dedicated to smoking weed reportedly dates back to five high school students in Marin County, California, who chose 4.20 pm, on any given day in 1971, to gather at San Rafael High School and partake in the recreational drug, and used ‘420’ as a code to talk about.
The are rumored to have referred to themselves as ‘the Waldos.’
On a timeline of the history of 4/20, published by High Times magazine in February 2014, the magazine wrote:
‘[In 1990,] a mysterious flyer promoting 420 circulates at Grateful Dead shows, especially in Northern California. A copy of the flyer finds its way from a show in Oakland to High Times‘ offices in New York. San Rafael was the home of Grateful Dead Productions, supporting a link back to the original Waldos, who are not mentioned in the flyer.
‘[In 1991,] High Times publishes the text of the mysterious flyer, which claims that 420 started in San Rafael, California, “as a police code for marijuana smoking in progress.” It also promotes “the grandmaster of all holidays: 4/20, or April 20th.”‘
Associated Press medical writer Lindsey Tanner contributed to this report.
Frank Peters rolls a marijuana cigarette during a demonstration in front of the San Francisco Hall of Justice July 12, 2005 in San Francisco, California