(CBS) Studies have shown marijuana may help fight glaucoma, boost appetites in cancer patients, and reduce nausea, aches, and pains for some disease sufferers. But a new study links pot to something else:
Deadly car crashes.
The study found that nearly 30 percent of fatally injured drivers tested positive for drugs other than alcohol, with marijuana being the main culprit.
"Given the ongoing epidemic of drug-impaired driving and the increased permissibility and accessibility of marijuana for medical use in the U.S., it is urgent that we better understand the role of marijuana in causing car accidents," study author Dr. Guohua Li, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, said in a written statement.
For the study - published in the Oct. issue of Epidemiologic Reviews -researchers analyzed nine large-scale drugged driving studies. The researchers found that drivers who tested positive for marijuana within three hours of using were more than twice as likely to be involved in a motor vehicle crash. The study also showed that the crash risk was higher if the marijuana concentration levels found in the urine were higher. More Read
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