As you have undoubtedly noticed, auto insurance rates have increased significantly in recent years. According to the latest data, auto insurance rates have jumped by nearly 26% for full coverage since the start of the pandemic, and the trend is expected to continue into 2025.
Various media outlets have attributed the spike to several factors, including inflation, supply chain disruptions, and natural disasters. Some acknowledge that increased accident rates — which lead to higher claims — are also a factor in higher insurance rates. What they are not telling us is why we are seeing an increase in traffic accidents. We are just being told that people are simply driving less safely post-COVID.
The media’s explanations ignore the obvious.
Years ago, when IFI was actively opposing the legalization of “recreational” marijuana in Illinois, we warned readers and lawmakers that having more stoned/buzzed/inebriated drivers on the road would inevitably lead to more traffic accidents. We didn’t just jump to these conclusions. Our warnings were based on hard data from other states that had already legalized pot, specifically Colorado. Legal weed results in more traffic accidents.
On the IFI “Resources on the Truth and Consequences of Marijuana” page, we have links to multiple resources lamenting the correlation between marijuana legalization and an increase in traffic accidents, particularly fatal ones. Here are some of the key facts you should know:
- Colorado and Washington: After legalization, these states observed an increase in fatal traffic accidents. Colorado saw a significant trend change with an increase in THC-positive drivers involved in fatal accidents.
- Fatal Traffic Accidents: Between 2000 and 2018, the percentage of car crash deaths involving marijuana doubled, and the percentage involving both THC and alcohol more than doubled.
- Alcohol and Cannabis: There is a strong correlation between alcohol and marijuana use in crash deaths, with pot increasing the likelihood of alcohol involvement.
- Young Drivers: Fatal crashes involving marijuana were more likely to involve younger individuals and passengers.
- Commercial Sales: The increase in fatal crashes was more pronounced once commercial recreational marijuana dispensaries began to open.
- Perception of Safety: Many pot users do not believe that THC negatively affects their driving, which may contribute to the increase in accidents.
- Risk Behaviors: Several studies indicate a greater number of risk behaviors related to driving after marijuana consumption, particularly among young, male drivers who also consume alcohol.
You don’t need to go to a Walmart parking lot or drive down the Eisenhower Expressway to know that pot smoking is a widespread problem. How many of us are fed up with smelling secondhand pot smoke on the roads and in shopping areas? Apparently, you and I are not alone. According to a recent City Journal article, residents from Los Angeles to D.C. “complain regularly of the reek of weed.”
Since daily use of marijuana is soaring and now outpacing alcohol consumption, there is no good reason to be surprised by these outcomes. According to a 2022 study published in the journal Addiction, 17.7 million people in the United States reported using marijuana either every day or nearly every day.
Thanks in part to foolish state lawmakers in Illinois and twenty-three other states, our neighbors are being led to believe that the use of high-potency THC is harmless, recreational, and even medicinal. Following legalization, public support seems to be increasing. In fact, a March 2024 Pew Research Center poll reports:
- An overwhelming share of U.S. adults (88%) say marijuana should be legal for medical or recreational use.
- Nearly six in ten Americans (57%) say marijuana should be legal for medical and recreational purposes, while roughly a third (32%) say marijuana should be legal for medical use only.
- Just 11% of Americans say the drug should not be legal at all.
Predictably, our state lawmakers sold marijuana legalization to voters as harmless, knowing that most people associate marijuana with the “Cheech and Chong” days in the early ’70s when THC content was at 2% or 3%. What lawmakers didn’t tell you at the time is that they were legalizing marijuana with typical THC-content levels of 50%, 60%, or even 80% or 90%. And THC content is purposely NOT regulated by the state of Illinois. It’s no surprise we are seeing a dramatic rise in psychosis, paranoia, suicide, brain damage in young people, hyperemesis syndrome, and impaired memory, to name a few.
Now we are all paying higher auto insurance rates, thanks in part to the legalization of “recreational” marijuana. Unfortunately, there is little satisfaction in saying, “We told you so.”
Be sober; be vigilant; because your adversary the devil
prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
~1 Peter: 5:8~
Learn More:
- Doctors Warn Cannabis Can Cause Serious Health Hazards
- New York Could Soon Regret Legalizing Marijuana (City Journal)
- VIDEO: The Dangerous Truth About Today’s Marijuana: High-Potency, Psychosis, and Suicide – Dr. Libby Stuyt
