4月20日是什么日子？国际大麻日？！
国际大麻日，是指在1971年，美国圣拉菲尔高中一群学生约好在4点20分于学校的路易·巴斯德像前吸食大麻。
在这一天，世界各地的大麻支持者会相聚在一起抽大麻，以示庆祝与支持大麻合法化之意。除了早就解禁大麻的美国许多州及荷兰之外，近年来德国、澳洲、加拿大、乌拉圭、南非、阿根廷等国预计陆续开放民众合法或以医疗目的使用大麻...
当然，这不是这篇文章的重点。本文的主要内容是，研究者们对这一天的交通事故死亡率很好奇，想知道这一天的死亡率是否会比平常更高，那么结果怎么样呢？
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A look at a database of fatal traffic accidents found a 12 percent increase on the informal marijuana holiday 4/20 after 4:20 P.M. compared with nearby dates.
Traffic Deaths Increase after 4:20 P.M. on 4/20
Tomorrow is April 20th—4/20. It's sometimes called a “High Holiday”. Because for a lot of people, 4/20 is Marijuana Day. And for them it’s kind of a tradition to start lighting up at 4:20 P.M. on 4/20. Which led a couple of researchers in Canada to wonder if there was any evidence for an increase in traffic deaths related to the occasion.
They got access to the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Which tracks all public road accidents in which at least one person died. And they looked at the numbers on 4/20 from 4:20 P.M. through midnight. From 1992 through 2016. They also examined traffic deaths related to accidents on the day one week earlier and the day one week later during the same hours.
The result: a 12 percent increase in fatalities related to traffic accidents on 4/20 after 4:20 P.M. compared with the control dates. And for drivers 20 and under the figure was much higher, more than a 30 percent increase in some states. The research is in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. [John A. Staples and Donald A. Redelmeier, The April 20 Cannabis Celebration and Fatal Traffic Crashes in the United States]
Of course, this study does not prove that impaired driving caused by marijuana consumption was the cause of the higher death rate. For example, could be that drivers crashed while simply trying to light up.
Scientific American has long supported making it easier for researchers to study marijuana’s medicinal effects as well as decriminalization in general. But we’re still against driving while intoxicated—so if you’re gonna be toking, keep those pistons from stroking. The pistons in the engine. Of the car. Just don’t drive.
—Steve Mirsky