How would things change if we legalized cannabis? Advocates may point to states like Colorado or countries like Canada and claim that things would be totally fine. But others look at this exact same situation and see a strong argument against legal weed.
Would you want a surgeon operating on you if he or she was high? Would you want to get out on the road with stoned drivers? Could you trust that anyone would get anything done in a society like this?
Continuing our series on the best arguments for and against legalizing cannabis, we’re taking a look at the argument that legalizing cannabis would be bad for society.
Summary: Would Legalizing Cannabis Be Bad for Society?
Yes…
- Driving high is dangerous, and legalization will make it more common.
- Cannabis use during or before work is dangerous and reduces productivity.
- Cannabis users are lazy, and this is bad for society.
No…
- People already use cannabis – legalization doesn’t change that much.
- Driving high is dangerous, just like driving drunk, but that doesn’t justify prohibition in either case.
- Evidence shows that using cannabis outside of work hours doesn’t impact productivity or motivation.
Why Cannabis Legalization is Bad for Society
While there are many reasons people may give that legalizing cannabis is bad for society, we’re focusing on three common points people raise. These are impaired driving, motivation/productivity and impairment on the job.
Cannabis Use and Impaired Driving
Generally speaking, driving under the influence of cannabis is more dangerous than driving sober. One study looked at the existing epidemiological and experimental evidence on cannabis use and motor vehicle crashes. The epidemiological evidence either looks at the number of drivers involved in accidents who have THC or metabolites in their system, or compares crash rates in states that have legalized cannabis with rates in those which have not.
This type of study tends to show increased risks with cannabis use, but that the risk is not as big as that of driving drunk. One example meta-analysis found that using cannabis before driving increases your risk of a crash by 36%. Even though alcohol increases risks much more, this is still clear evidence that driving under the influence of cannabis is dangerous.
Other evidence looks at specific skills needed by drivers in more of a lab setting. These studies have varying results. Generally speaking, they show that cannabis use negatively impacts drivers’ useful field of view, motor pursuit tracking and time estimation.
Many other studies are listed here, but the results described above give a general picture of what the evidence says.
Cannabis Use and Motivation/Productivity
Most people are familiar with the “lazy stoner” stereotype, and if this is true, it could be argued that making cannabis legal will result in a less productive society.
Researchers investigating this hypothesis have found some support. A systematic review of studies looking into this issue focused on both motivation and “reward sensitivity.” This is basically a measure of how much motivation someone has to attain rewards. While the study found mixed results for an acute effect of cannabis on motivation, there was “partial support” for a causal link between cannabis use and reduced motivation.
The impact of this could be substantial. If legalization causes more people to use cannabis, and those who use cannabis have reduced motivation, the impacts on productivity could be huge. Even as cannabis advocates argue for economic benefits of legalization, reduced productivity could eat into or even overwhelm these potential benefits. It could make society lazier, and this is not a good thing.
Getting High at Work
Finally, it kind of goes without saying that you can’t do most jobs well if you’re high. Even if we ignore the more obvious cases – a surgeon, a police officer, an air-traffic controller – anybody sneaking a joint before work will likely reduce the output and quality of their work. A society in which everyone is high would be a society that does not function.
The evidence on this is also pretty clear: you can’t work as efficiently if you are high.
Counterpoint: Responsible Use is Crucial
The best counter to all of these arguments is that responsible use doesn’t lead to these problems. Drunk driving kills, but that doesn’t mean we should ban alcohol. Likewise, if everyone was drunk all the time we’d have exactly the same type of issues as if everyone was high all the time.
This argument assumes that legalizing weed means it’s 4/20 every day and everyone from your plumber to your local sheriff will be lighting up like Cheech and Chong. But people who live in legal states know that this isn’t the case: just like with alcohol, most people keep it to their free, non-work time.
Counterpoint: Evidence Doesn’t Support the Claims About Cannabis, Productivity and Motivation
And that’s where the productivity argument starts to fall down, too. Expectedly, if you use cannabis before or during work, productivity does decline.
However, when researchers look at use outside of work hours, as in this study, there is no impact on productivity whatsoever. This study did even more than just offer a more fine-grained definition of “use” – it also got employees’ direct supervisors to rate their performance and other areas like “organizational citizenship behaviors” (e.g. helping others with heavy workloads).
In fact, the evidence more broadly suggests that the notion of an “amotivational syndrome” for cannabis users is false:
- One study found no evidence of an impact of cannabis on motivation, but did find a slight decrease in subjective wellbeing, which may have been related to medical symptoms rather than cannabis.
- Another study suggested that many results to the contrary are biased by individual differences rather than being caused by cannabis use.
- A study looked at apathy and anhedonia in a sample of adult and adolescent cannabis users, and not only found no difference in apathy between them and controls, but also that anhedonia was more common in controls.
- A review of recent evidence on this point conducted in 2023 found that while there is some evidence of a link between apathy and cannabis use disorder, people who use cannabis do not have problems with motivation – in fact many studies showed more motivation in cannabis users.
Our Take: Society Already Has Stoners in it, and It’s Not So Bad
The core issue with this argument is that society already has people using cannabis: legalization isn’t the huge change that this assumes it is. Of course people shouldn’t drive high or go to work stoned, but neither of these things requires cannabis to be legal and in fact it’s already happening.
Legalizing cannabis should be coupled with a big campaign about the dangers of driving high and support for those who smoke through their workday and likely have a deeper problem with cannabis.
Keeping weed illegal doesn’t help with any of this.
References
Barnwell, S., Earleywine, M., & Wilcox, R. (2006). Cannabis, motivation, and life satisfaction in an internet sample. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, 1(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/1747-597x-1-2
About the source:
- Peer reviewed? Yes, published in Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention and Policy.
- Methodology: An internet survey comparing motivation and subjective well-being between never-users of cannabis and those who use cannabis seven days per week.
- Sample size: 487 (244 never-users vs. 243 regular cannabis users).
- Main results: The full statistical analysis showed no difference between the groups in terms of motivation, but a small difference in subjective well-being, likely due to the medical conditions that led some participants to use cannabis, rather than cannabis itself.
- Other notes: The sample was recruited online, and was primarily Caucasian and educated, with most daily smokers being male. The researchers also didn’t account for other substances also used by the participants.
Bernerth, J. B., & Walker, H. J. (2020). Altered States or Much to Do About Nothing? A Study of When Cannabis Is Used in Relation to the Impact It Has on Performance. Group & Organization Management, 45(4), 459–478. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601120917590
About the source:
- Peer reviewed? Yes, published in Group & Organization Management.
- Methodology: Used data from employees and their direct supervisors, looking at task performance, organizational citizenship behaviors and counterproductive work behaviors in relation to the employees’ use of cannabis before, during or after work.
- Sample size: 281 employees and their direct supervisors.
- Main results: While cannabis use before and during work negatively impacted performance, but there was no impact from use after work.
- Other notes: The cannabis use in the study was self-reported, and so it may have been higher than reported here. Additionally, this study only took place at one point in time, so there may be a link (e.g. poor performance at work increasing cannabis use) that this didn’t capture.
Miller, N. (2024, July 29). How are marijuana and THC levels measured among drivers? The Journalist’s Resource. https://journalistsresource.org/health/marijuana-driving/
About the source:
- Peer reviewed? No. Published in The Journalist’s Resource.
- Methodology: Collects information, quotes and scientific studies pertaining to driving under the influence of cannabis.
- Main points: Driving under the influence of cannabis makes accidents more likely, and people are less aware of the risk. However, changes occurring after cannabis is legalized may not solely be due to legalization. It also discusses the challenges in measuring cannabis impairment in drivers.
- Other notes: Lists a huge number of studies on this issue, and is well worth checking out if you’re interested in the scientific evidence.
Pacheco-Colón, I., Limia, J. M., & Gonzalez, R. (2018). Nonacute effects of cannabis use on motivation and reward sensitivity in humans: A systematic review. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 32(5), 497–507. https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000380
About the source:
- Peer reviewed? Yes, published in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.
- Methodology: Systematic review of all studies published since 1990 in English looking at the non-acute effects of cannabis on motivation and/or rewards sensitivity.
- Sample size: Included 22 studies in final sample.
- Main results: While evidence from cross-sectional studies is unclear on whether there is a specific effect of cannabis on motivation, there is “partial support” for a causal effect from longitudinal studies.
- Other notes: The authors note many issues interpreting the data, including many studies not controlling for the use of other drugs or psychological conditions such as depression which may impact the results.
Pearlson, G. D., Stevens, M. C., & D’Souza, D. C. (2021). Cannabis and Driving. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.689444
About the source:
- Peer reviewed? Yes, published in Frontiers in Psychiatry.
- Methodology: Narrative review of the evidence on cannabis use and driving, including comparisons with alcohol-impaired driving and a discussion of per se limits for cannabis.
- Main results: Evidence shows that being intoxicated on cannabis increases the risk of being involved in an accident, but not as much as alcohol does. Additionally, experimental evidence shows that cannabis impairs specific skills and abilities crucial for safe driving.
- Other notes: The authors note that, “both proponents and opponents of cannabis legalization each interpret statistical reports of motor vehicle crashes in relationship to cannabis legalization differently, hoping that the data can help further their own agenda.”
Popovici, I., & French, M. T. (2013). Cannabis Use, Employment, and Income: Fixed-Effects Analysis of Panel Data. The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research, 41(2), 185–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11414-013-9349-8
About the source:
- Peer reviewed? Yes, published in The Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research.
- Methodology: Used data from waves 1 and 2 of the National Epidemiological Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARS) to look at the relationship between cannabis use, employment and income.
- Sample size: 14,276 (50.4% men)
- Main results: While the results of the wave 2 models linked almost all patterns of cannabis use with worse labor market outcomes, when individual heterogeneity was accounted for, the effect estimates get smaller and are less likely to be statistically significant.
- Other notes: The authors conclude, “These findings suggest that unobserved individual heterogeneity is an important source of bias in models of cannabis use and labor market outcomes. Moreover, cannabis use may be less detrimental in the labor market than other studies have reported.”
Rogeberg, O., & Elvik, R. (2016). The effects of cannabis intoxication on motor vehicle collision revisited and revised. Addiction, 111(8), 1348–1359. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.13347
About the source:
- Peer reviewed? Yes, published in Addiction.
- Methodology: Meta-analyses of data on cannabis intoxication and motor vehicle crashes. The first part replicates the findings of two meta-analyses, correcting for methodological issues. The second is a new meta-analysis based on 28 studies.
- Sample size: For the first part, one meta-analysis has 50,877 participants and the other has 93,229. The second part uses data covering 239,739 participants.
- Main results: Driving under the influence of cannabis has a statistically significant association with motor vehicle accidents, with odds ratios of between 1.22 and 1.36, depending on the model. Reanalysis of previous results led to lower estimates, in line with the estimate quoted here.
- Other notes: The authors point out that simple extrapolations of these results to real-world consequences of legalization are unlikely to be valid. For example, legalization would likely be accompanied by anti “high driving” campaigns akin to those used for drunk driving, which would mitigate the risk.
Skumlien, M., Langley, C., & Sahakian, B. J. (2023). Is Cannabis Use Associated with Motivation? A Review of Recent Acute and Non-Acute Studies. Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40473-023-00268-1
About the source:
- Peer reviewed? Yes, published in Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports.
- Methodology: A narrative review of recent studies looking at acute and non-acute impacts of cannabis on motivation.
- Sample size: Five non-acute and two acute studies.
- Main results: Cannabis use was associated with higher willingness to make effort for reward in 3/5 non-acute studies, with no differences in the other two. Both acute studies found a reduced willingness to make effort for a reward in cannabis users.
- Other notes: Overall, recent studies don’t support the supposed link between non-acute cannabis use and motivation. The researchers note that motivation is a multi-faceted concept and more studies are needed to investigate different aspects of it.
Skumlien, M., Mokrysz, C., Freeman, T. P., Valton, V., Wall, M. B., Bloomfield, M., Lees, R., Borissova, A., Petrilli, K., Giugliano, M., Clisu, D., Langley, C., Sahakian, B. J., Curran, H. V., & Lawn, W. (2022). Anhedonia, apathy, pleasure, and effort-based decision-making in adult and adolescent cannabis users and controls. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijnp/pyac056
About the source:
- Peer reviewed? Yes, published in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology.
- Methodology: Comparing cannabis users (1 to 7 uses per week) with matched controls on apathy, anhedonia, effort-based decision making and subjective wanting and liking of rewards.
- Sample size: 274 adult and adolescent cannabis users, and an equal number of age and gender matched controls.
- Main results: The only significant difference between the groups was higher levels of anhedonia in the controls. There was no sign of motivation issues in the cannabis user group.
- Other notes: The biggest limitation of the study was its cross-sectional design (taking place at one point in time), so effects may exist but manifest after some time using cannabis.