Callaghan and his team looked at weekly provincial counts of traffic-injury emergency department presentations of all drivers and youth drivers in Alberta and Ontario, the only two Canadian provinces capturing all ED visits occurring in the general population.
The team found that, immediately after cannabis legalization, there was no evidence of significant changes in traffic-injury emergency department visits among all drivers or youth drivers.
“Implementation of cannabis legalization has raised a common concern that such legislation might increase traffic-related harms, especially among youth,” says Dr.
Callaghan and his team are currently conducting a follow-up study to examine the impacts of cannabis legalization on traffic fatalities in Canada from 2010-2020.