Freakonomics wrote about something very much at the heart of the matter of regulating and taxing cannabis use by adults in the United States.
That’s the claim of a new paper by D. Mark Anderson and Daniel I. Rees, put out by the IZA, titled “Medical Marijuana Laws, Traffic Fatalities, and Alcohol Consumption”:
To date, 16 states have passed medical marijuana laws, yet very little is known about their effects. Using state-level data, we examine the relationship between medical marijuana laws and a variety of outcomes. Legalization of medical marijuana is associated with increased use of marijuana among adults, but not among minors. In addition, legalization is associated with a nearly 9 percent decrease in traffic fatalities, most likely to due to its impact on alcohol consumption. Our estimates provide strong evidence that marijuana and alcohol are substitutes.
As people drink less, our society will actually become more peaceful and safer. Cannabis is going to turn out to be cooler than people think. Legalize or not? Viva Sativa!
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High Minded Dope quote of the day:
“The many thousands of patients who use marijuana for the treatment of a number of symptoms and syndromes do so because they find it to be as or more effective, and generally less toxic, than the conventionally prescribed medicines it replaces, plus it is less expensive, even at prohibition-inflated prices.”
–Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School,
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