As marijuana legalization took effect in Ohio over the last year, the number of fatal traffic crashes in linked to cannabis fell by 30 percent—contrary to warnings from opponents of the policy change who feared it would lead to more deadly car accidents involving stoned drivers. That’s according to new preliminary data from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which found that proportion of impaired drivers suspected to be under the influence of marijuana also declined compared to 2023.
State voters approved marijuana legalization in November 2023, with use and possession becoming legal the following month. Adult-use cannabis sales, meanwhile, began last August.
State voters approved marijuana legalization in November 2023, with use and possession becoming legal the following month. Adult-use cannabis sales, meanwhile, began last August.
All told, there were 1,067 fatal traffic crashes in Ohio during 2024—the lowest number in at least five years, and down 7 percent from the 1,150 fatal crashes in 2023.
Of those, about 20 percent (215 crashes) were linked to cannabis last year—also the lowest number in years, and down from 27 percent (306 crashes) in 2023.
Impaired driving—referred to in Ohio as operating a vehicle under the influence, or OVI—also decreased from 2023 to 2024, with 644 fewer arrests last year compared to a year earlier. There were 83 fewer cannabis-related OVI arrests in 2024 compared to 2023.
In 2023, authorities logged 15,276 OVI arrests, about 10 percent (1,454) of which were related to marijuana. In 2024, 14,632 arrests took place—a decrease of about 4 percent. Of those, 1,371 were suspected to be linked to cannabis—a drop of approximately 6 percent.
Overall, 242 people died in Ohio last year in crashes believed to involve marijuana use. That’s 28 percent fewer deaths than the 335 logged in 2023. It’s also the lowest number of fatal traffic accidents involving cannabis since at least 2020.
The total number of crashes in general linked to marijuana in 2024—1,171—was also the lowest number since at least 2020 and marked a 12 percent decline since 2023.
Since Ohio legalized adult-use cannabis in 2023, the Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) has recorded significantly fewer drug arrests generally, although the data doesn’t distinguish arrests by substance type.
Between 2023 and 2024, there were 5,458 fewer drug arrests by OSHP—a drop of 66 percent.
Drug arrests by OSHP have fallen steadily since 2021, when 12,528 arrests took place. That figure dropped to 8,386 in 2022, 8,216 in 2023 and 2,758 last year.
Ohio State Highway Patrol Statistical Analysis Unit
A representative for OSHP said the data is still preliminary and may be updated as officials receive back more results from pending toxicology tests. On Friday, the office updated the provided data after Marijuana Moment identified an apparent error in an earlier version that had indicated the state saw an identical number of fatal traffic crashes in 2023 and 2024.
The declines in cannabis-related traffic deaths, which were first reported by Spectrum News, follow reports from state cannabis regulators that legal sales of marijuana in Ohio surpassed $242 million as last year drew to a close.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers in the state are once again aiming to scale back parts of the state’s voter-approved marijuana legalization law, looking to a proposal from last year that would have decreased allowable THC levels in state-legal cannabis products, reduced the number of plants that adults can grow at home and increased costs for consumers at dispensaries.
House Speaker Matt Huffman (R), who took over the office this month following November’s election and a prior stint as Senate president, is widely expected to push the restrictive proposal forward.
“There were some fundamental flaws in the initiative that was introduced and passed by the voters, which you usually have when there’s not a vetting from all sides,” Huffman told reporters late last year about the voter-approved marijuana law. “The bill that the Senate passed last December addresses many of those things.”
Initially, the changes backed by Hoffman would have eliminated home cultivation rights entirely for Ohio adults and criminalized all cannabis obtained anywhere other than a state-licensed retailer. Those amendments would have also reduced the marijuana possession limit, raised sales tax on cannabis purchases and diverted funding away from social equity programs and toward law enforcement.
Senators subsequently scaled back those amendments, proposing that households be able to grow no more than six plants rather than 12, as is currently allowed under the law. The revised bill would still have raised taxes on cannabis and limited potency, however.
Huffman has been critical of the homegrow provision, having said that “the only reason someone would be growing that much marijuana is to resell it.”
Former House Speaker Jason Stephens (R) has been dubious of Huffman’s plan.
“As we’ve said, this is the People’s House, and we will continue to respect the will of the voters,” Stephens told local ABC affiliate News 5 Cleveland.
Republican Rep. Jamie Callendar has also pushed back against Huffman’s plan to further limit marijuana in Ohio, noting that the state-licensed market only got up and running in August. Within 11 days of the market launch, retailers had reportedly sold $22.5 million worth of cannabis products.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in November took testimony on a proposal that would ban intoxicating hemp products in the state. Sen. Steve Huffman (R) introduced that bill after Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) called on lawmakers to regulate or ban delta-8 THC products.
Despite legalization of adult-use cannabis in Ohio, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’s (VA) Cincinnati health center issued a reminder this summer that government doctors are still prohibited from recommending medical cannabis to veterans—at least as long as it remains a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law.
This story was updated after OSHP corrected an initial error in the provided traffic fatality data.
As marijuana legalization took effect in Ohio over the last year, the number of fatal traffic crashes in linked to cannabis fell by 30 percent—contrary to warnings from opponents of the policy change who feared it would lead to more deadly car accidents involving stoned drivers. That’s according to new preliminary data from the Ohio Read More
