New questions are being raised about expanding legal access in Massachusetts.
State records reviewed by FOX25 reveal there are currently more than 24,000 active medical marijuana users and more than 2,200 new medical marijuana card holders were just added last month.
The current law requires you to be diagnosed with a "debilitating medical condition" to get a medical card, and police say figuring out who's actually impaired on the road is hard to do.
Walpole Police Chief John Carmichael says officers’ hands are often tied when they pull over someone who's been smoking marijuana.
“We don't have standard field sobriety testing for OUI-drugs. We don't have a machine at the police station where we could test somebody,” he said.
A report by AAA found that in Washington, the percentage of drivers involved in fatal crashes, who recently used marijuana more than doubled from 8 percent to 17 percent after that state legalized the drug.
“Now we're talking about increasing, opening the floodgates of this drug that does cause impairment,” Carmichael said.
But some medical marijuana advocates tell FOX25 they don't buy the idea that more legal users in Massachusetts means more impaired people on the road.
“The vast, vast majority of people who are medical marijuana users, use it responsibly,” said Bill Downing of MassCann. “The idea that prohibition is somehow stopping people from getting marijuana now or stopping people from driving while high on marijuana now is just not realistic at all.”
Gov. Charlie Baker has been outspoken on this issue. Wednesday night his press secretary issued the following statement:
“Governor Baker has serious concerns about the negative effects associated with the proliferation of marijuana use as evidence shows that legalization leads to harm, especially among young people, and hopes the person responsible for this tragic incident is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Along with a bipartisan group of public officials, the governor is working hard to oppose the legalization of marijuana that would lead to expanded use as the Commonwealth fights the deadly opioid and heroin epidemic.”
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