Assessing the impacts of the Cannabis Act on patterns of motor vehicle collision injuries among youth and young adults in emergency departments across Canada

The Canadian Federal government intends to legalize adult recreational cannabis use via the Cannabis Act on October 17, 2018. The Canadian Pediatric Society and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police have expressed concern about how cannabis legalization might exacerbate patterns of motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) among young people. Cannabis-impaired driving is now more prevalent among adolescents than alcohol-impaired driving, and individuals aged 15-24 years have the highest annual numbers of national emergency department admissions for MVC injuries. One of the three central goals of the Cannabis Act aims to prevent cannabis use and related harms among youth. The Cannabis Act imposes a federal minimum-age restriction for the sale of cannabis products to individuals at least 18 years of age, with provinces having the mandate to set increased age limits. At this time, the MLCAs are 18 years in Alberta and Québec, and 19 years in the rest of the country. The Principal Investigator's prior research has shown that Canadian minimum-age restrictions do work. For example, in comparison to young people slightly younger than minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) restrictions, those young people just older than the MLDA have significant and immediate increases in MVC injury presentations to inpatient hospitals/emergency departments, police-reported alcohol-impaired driving crimes, and alcohol-related MVCs. The project aims to assess the impacts of cannabis legalization on patterns of MVC injuries among youth (defined as individuals still under MLCA restrictions) and young adults (those just older than the cannabis age-based limits) presenting to emergency departments across Canada. It is expected that the implementation of the Cannabis Act will be associated with: (1) significant increases in patterns of injury due to MVCs among young adults just older than the provincial/territorial MLCAs; and (2) no evidence of change in MVC injuries among age-restricted youth.