By Maureen Meehan, Benzinga on May 28, 2023

A University of Iowa study found that car insurance premiums dropped in states after they legalized medical marijuana, suggesting that driving while high may not be as dangerous as driving drunk.

Cameron Ellis, professor of finance at the University of Iowa (U of I) said they studied insurance data at the ZIP code level and found states that made medical marijuana legal between 2014 and 2019 saw premiums drop by an average of $22 per driver in the first year.

“In areas that had high levels of DUIs prior to medical cannabis legalization, rates fell at a much higher rate,” Ellis said, “because as bad as marijuana is for driving, alcohol is much worse, and so it’s sort of this reduction in DUIs that’s leading to the decline.”

– Read the entire article at Benzinga.