The correlation for alcohol remains clear, but marijuana’s effects on the body are a lot less straightforward.
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A new study out Tuesday from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety finds that it is very hard to accurately measure through a blood test whether someone’s driving is impaired because of marijuana. “It’s a highway safety problem that we should all be concerned about”.
Colorado, Oregon and Alaska have also legalized recreational marijuana, while many other states will consider such moves in the November election.
A positive test for recent marijuana use. There’s the Standardized Field Sobriety Test, where arrestees walk and turn, stand on one leg, and try to touch their nose, and the objective drug test, which measured blood THC concentration. Experts found that using marijuana roughly doubles the risk associated with driving, but driving while talking on a hands-free cellphone actually quadrupled the crash risk.
Data also suggests one in six drivers involved in deadly crashes in 2014 recently used marijuana. But, it is not even close to the leading cause of fatal crashes.
The AAA report focused only on Washington state, while legalized the sale and possession of marijuana in 2012. 08 blood alcohol limit for driving under the influence of alcohol. To do this, law enforcement should rely heavily on two current law enforcement programs: ARIDE (Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement); and the DEC (Drug Evaluation and Classification), which train officers to recognize drug-impaired driving. One dash cam video shows a speeding driver cutting through traffic and struggling to maintain his lane.
Instead of relying on an arbitrary number, the foundation’s report said police should be trained to more effectively identify behavioral and physiological evidence of driver impairment. According to a study by travel-services giant AAA, the presence of THC, the active chemical component in marijuana, in the systems of motorists involved in fatal crashes is spiking in states where use is legalized.
“AAA does not take a position on the legalization of marijuana, but is passionate about laws ensuring the safety of the motoring public”, Kevin Bakewell, Senior Vice President and Chief Public Affairs Officer for AAA, said in a statement.
“Two people can have the exact same amount of marijuana in their system and be affected in two completely different ways”, said AAA Spokesman Matt Nasworthy.
USA laws governing driving under the influence of marijuana are unscientific, research reveals.
For instance, it’s possible that police are simply testing for THC more often now that the drug has been legalized, and are therefore catching people who might have been missed in previous years, Hansen said. But other reports published the same day by the same organization cast doubt on the significance of that finding, underlining the perils of equating THC in the blood with impairment.
Studies show that using marijuana and driving roughly doubles the risk of a crash, Kleiman said.
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For instance, if more people stay home, “getting high in their basements”, rather than getting drunk in a bar, that may lower the number of drunk drivers on the roads, Hansen said. And there are 24 that allow it for medical use, many of which such as IL and DC are considering the switch to recreational use as well.
