NEW research into marijuana use and car crash injury suggests the drug does not cause accidents, it is more the personalities of the risk takers who use it.

A five-year study, to be published later this year, shows habitual users who get stoned more than seven times a week are 10 times more likely to die in a crash than occasional users who drive under its influence.

"What we actually found was that habitual marijuana use is a strong predictor of a car crash," University of Sydney research fellow Stephanie Blows told the Australian Epidemiology Association's annual conference at the University of WA yesterday.

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