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Legalization Hasn’t Increased Danger on the Highways, Betteridge’s Law of Headlines

International Cannabis Business Conference

Tuesday 09 Sep 2014

There have been quite a few stories picked up over the past week by national media with headlines in the vein of: “Will traffic fatalities rise as states legalize marijuana?” Though widely available statistics show that highway fatalities in Colorado are at near historic lows and there have been no corresponding increase in car accidents or fatalities. in Washington, major media outlets are pushing this story in a desperate attempt to elevate some run-of-the-mill piece of reporting into a national controversy and incite a national panic. Now might be a good time to educate yourself about Betteridge’s law of headlines - an adage that states: “Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.”

The adage, coined by British technology journalist Ian Betteridge, was explained in February 2009 in regards to a TechCrunch article with the headline “Did Last.fm Just Hand Over User Listening Data To the RIAA?”:

“This story is a great demonstration of my maxim that any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word “no”. The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the story is probably bullshit, and don’t actually have the sources and facts to back it up, but still want to run it.”

In many ways, this is exactly what is happening with this story. One particular case is widely repeated as justification for the story; that of Joseph Beer, a teenager from New York who smoked marijuana before getting into his Subaru Impreza with four friends, driving over 100 mph, losing control of his vehicle and crashing into trees resulting in the deaths of his friends. Beer pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular homicide and was sentenced last week to 5 years to 15 years in prison. Did marijuana contribute to the crash, and the deaths of Beer’s friends? According to Dr. Mehmet Sofuoglua, a Yale University Medical School expert on drug abuse who testified at Beer’s trial, “studies of marijuana and crash risk are ‘highly inconclusive.’ Some studies show a two- or three-fold increase, while others show none. Some studies even showed less risk if someone was marijuana positive.”

So, will legalization of marijuana lead to more highway traffic deaths? Probably not. Will legalization allow for more research to be done about the effect of marijuana on driving ability and impairment? Most definitely yes. It seems from the small dataset available from Colorado and Washington that legalization has had no impact on highway traffic fatalities, but it is important to remember that correlation does necessarily mean causation. One thing is certain – this is a headline that is bound to pop-up while Oregon, Washington D.C., and Alaska fight to legalize this November. It is important to keep in mind the law of headlines, the data that is coming out of WA and CO, and facts behind the story of Joseph Beer – who was under the influence of marijuana, but was also recklessly driving at a speed of 100 mph.

http://www.internationalcbc.com/blog/legalization-hasnt-increased-danger-on-the-highways-betteridges-law-of-headlines/

 

 

 

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