By Robin Hohweiler
In a case of unintended consequences, the surge in recent years of
states legalizing or decriminalizing recreational and medicinal
marijuana use appears to be causing an uptick in the number of
marijuana-related traffic fatalities. In a weird twist, it may very well
be that laws regulating the use of legalized marijuana are part of the
problem.
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety recently released
the results of studies conducted that revealed traffic fatalities of
individuals who recently used marijuana doubled in Washington State
after the state legalized the drug.
"These findings raise serious
concerns about drug-impaired driving especially now that 20 or more
states are considering marijuana legalization this year, including here
in Oklahoma where a petition drive seeks to place the matter of
legalizing the medicinal use of cannabis before the people this
November," said Chuck Mai, spokesman for AAA Oklahoma. "Washington was
one of the first two states to legalize the recreational use of
marijuana."
Also released recently by the AAA Foundation is new research
that shows that legal limits for marijuana and driving are arbitrary and
unsupported by science, which could result in unsafe motorists going
free and others being wrongfully convicted for impaired driving.
The Foundation examined drug tests and fatal crashes among drivers in
Washington, a state that legalized recreational use of marijuana in
December 2012.
Among the studies' findings were that the
percentage of drivers involved in fatal crashes who recently used
marijuana more than doubled from 8 to 17 percent between 2013 and 2014.
"In
an attempt to enforce drug-impaired driving, some states have created
legal limits, also known as per se limits, which specify the maximum
amount of active THC that drivers can have in their system based on a
blood test," said Mai.
"These THC limits are similar in concept to the
.08 BAC limit for driving under the influence of alcohol, but with THC,
it's an entirely different matter in terms of gauging risk behind the
wheel."
Researchers examined the lab results of drivers arrested
for impaired driving, and the results suggest that legal limits for
marijuana and driving cause many problems:
• There is no science
showing that drivers reliably become impaired at a specific level of
marijuana in the blood. Depending on the individual, driving with
relatively high levels of marijuana in their system might not be
impaired, while others with low levels may be unsafe behind the wheel.
This finding is very different from alcohol, where it is clear that
crash risk increases significantly at higher BAC levels.
• High
THC levels may drop below legal thresholds before a test is administered
to a suspected impaired driver. The average time to collect blood from a
suspected driver is often more than two hours because taking a blood
sample typically requires a warrant and transport to a facility.
Active
THC blood levels may decline significantly and could drop below legal
limits during that time.
• Marijuana can affect people
differently, making it challenging to develop consistent and fair
guidelines. For example, frequent users can exhibit persistent levels of
the drug long after use, while drug levels can decline more rapidly
among occasional users.
"There is understandably a strong desire
by both lawmakers and the public to create legal limits for marijuana
impairment, in the same manner as we do with alcohol," said Marshall
Doney, AAA's national president and CEO.
"In the case of marijuana, this
approach is flawed and not supported by scientific research. It's
simply not possible today to determine whether a driver is impair based
solely on the amount of the drug in their body."
AAA is urging
states to use more comprehensive enforcement measures to improve road
safety. Rather than relying on arbitrary legal limits, states should use
a two-component systems that requires (1) a positive test for recent
marijuana use, and most importantly, (2) behavioral and physiological
evidence of driver impairment.
This system would rely heavily on
two current law-enforcement training programs: Advanced Roadside
Impaired Driving Enforcements (ARIDE) and the 50-state Drug Evaluation
and Classification (DEC) program. These programs train law enforcement
officers around the country to more effectively recognize drug-impaired
driving.
"Marijuana can affect driver safety by impairing vehicle
control and judgement," said Doney. "States need consistent, strong and
fair enforcement measures to ensure that the increased use of marijuana
does not impact road safety."
Four states - Alaska, Colorado,
Oregon and Washington - plus Washington, D.C., have legalized the
recreational use of marijuana and 20 states have legalized it for
therapeutic and medicinal use.
Montana and Washington have
implemented a per se limit for marijuana at 5 ng/mL (nanograms per
milliliter); Nevada and Ohio have set a limit at 2 ng/mL; and
Pennsylvania's is set at 1 ng/mL. Twelve states have strict per se laws
that forbid the presence of any levels of marijuana. In Colorado, a
blood concentration of 5 ng/mL or more gives rise to permissible
inferences that a person was driving under the influence of the drug.
The two studies referred to in this article may be found on the following websites:
"Prevalence of Marijuana Involvement in Fatal Crashes: Washington, 2010-2014" - http://publicaffairsresources.aaa.biz/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Prevalence-of-Marijuana-Involvement-Report-FINAL.pdf
"An Evaluation of Data from Drivers Arrested for Driving Under the Influence in Relation to Per Se Limits for Cannabis" - http://publicaffairsresources.aaa.biz/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Evaluation-of-Drivers-in-Relation-to-Per-Se-Report-FINAL.pdf
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