Question 4 opponents: Legal marijuana will increase traffic deaths

By Colin A. Young

BOSTON -- The campaign working to block marijuana legalization in Massachusetts on Thursday urged voters to consider the effect legal pot would have on the state's roadways, saying Question 4 "will result in more tragic traffic deaths on our roads."

The Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts on Thursday levied an attack against Yes on 4, the group promoting legalization, charging the group with deceiving voters on the traffic safety implications of Question 4.

"Instead of deceiving voters and attacking facts, the Yes on 4 campaign should come clean and admit what is plainly obvious -- that passing Question 4 will result in more tragic traffic deaths on our roads," Nick Bayer, campaign manager for Safe and Healthy Massachusetts, said in a statement.

Question 4 would legalize marijuana possession and use for adults 21 and older, charge a 3.75 percent excise tax on sales of marijuana, and set up a Cannabis Control Commission to regulate the new industry.

The Safe and Healthy Mass. campaign pointed to studies in Washington and Colorado -- states that legalized marijuana in 2012 -- that found an increase in traffic deaths after marijuana became available legally.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety released a study in May showing that the percentage of drivers involved in fatal crashes who recently used marijuana more than doubled from 8 percent to 17 percent between 2013 and 2014. One in six drivers involved in a fatal crash in Washington in 2014 had recently used the drug, according to the foundation.

And a report from the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area -- an organization of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies -- reported a 62 percent increase in "marijuana-impaired traffic fatalities" in Colorado since marijuana became legal in that state.

Yes on 4 has previously questioned the credibility of data from the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, and on Thursday said its "prohibitionist opponents" were using the data to try to scare voters "with more reefer-madness nonsense."

"No government studies from Colorado or any other legal state show an increase in traffic deaths due to marijuana use. In fact, 2015 OUI marijuana arrests in Colorado actually went down compared to 2014," Jim Borghesani, communications director for Yes on 4, said. "There is a reason why voters in Colorado and other legal states are more supportive of their tax-and-regulate systems now than when they were originally passed - because they're working."

Yes on 4 has previously discredited the data by citing testimony that Andrew Freedman, the director of the Colorado governor's Office of Marijuana Coordination, gave to the Vermont House Judiciary Committee earlier this year.

"With greater enforcement and more miles on the road, if anything we would have expected an increase of citations over the course of 2015 and we saw a flat line of citations," Freedman said, according to Vermont TV station NBC 5.

The Safe and Healthy Mass. campaign -- led by Gov. Charlie Baker, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, Attorney General Maura Healey and House Speaker Robert DeLeo -- also called out legalization proponents for not addressing the current lack of a roadside test for police officers to test drivers for marijuana impairment.

"They also should answer the question of why their ballot question does absolutely nothing to address the inevitable increase in impaired driving and the lack of any roadside test to detect it," Bayer said in the statement. "This is another reason why Question 4 is the wrong proposal at the wrong time, and voters should vote no and send this back to the drawing board."

Will Luzier, a former assistant attorney general who now serves as campaign manager for the Yes on 4 ballot drive, told the News Service last month, "The concern about (operating under the influence) is unfounded because by the time this becomes fully implemented there will be a roadside device to test impairment."

Researchers at Stanford University last month announced that they have developed and are testing a "potalyzer" -- a device that could detect THC molecules in saliva and report the level of THC in the saliva within three minutes.