Page 11 - AAA Shelby County – AAA Now! – January/February 2017

our coMMunity
The Increasing Dangers of
Drugged Driving
New research sounds the alarm on the growing use of marijuana and the rising risks to safety on the road.
Early study results are in regarding fatal crashes in a state that has legalized the recreational use of marijuana. And they’re not good.
According to new AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety research, fatal crashes involving drivers who had recently used marijuana doubled in Washington after the state legalized the drug at the end of 2012. Researchers found that the percentage of drivers involved in fatal crashes who had a detectable level of active THC — the main chemical component in marijuana — in their blood at or shortly after the time of the crash more than doubled, from 8 percent to 17 percent, between 2013 and 2014. Additionally, one in six drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2014 had recently used marijuana.
“The significant increase in fatal crashes involving marijuana is alarming,” says Foundation President and CEO Peter Kissinger.
The AAA findings raise serious concerns as other states consider changing their marijuana laws.
Seven states and the District of Columbia also have legalized recreational marijuana use, while several other states, including Ohio, have legalized its use for therapeutic and medical purposes.
A Growing Problem
Marijuana use behind the wheel is growing nationwide. According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration survey, nearly 13 percent of weekend nighttime drivers had evidence of recent marijuana intake in their systems in 2013, the latest year for which figures are available, up from 9 percent in 2007.
Some states have created legal, or “per se,” limits, which specify that having more than a certain concentration of THC in one’s blood while driving is illegal in and of itself, regardless of whether there is additional evidence that the driver is impaired. New research, however, shows that marijuana per se limits are arbitrary and unsupported by science, raising concerns that some unsafe motorists might go free, while others could be wrongfully convicted.
“In the case of marijuana, it’s simply not possible today to determine whether a driver is impaired based solely on the amount of the drug in his or her
body,” says AAA President and CEO Marshall L. Doney.
AAA is urging states where marijuana use is legal to apply more comprehensive enforcement measures, including a two-component system to convict a person of marijuana-impaired driving, advocating state laws that establish “permissible inference” of impairment by marijuana only when both a positive lab result for active THC in whole blood is combined with additional evidence of impaired driving.
“States need consistent, strong and fair enforcement measures to ensure that the increased use of marijuana does not impact road safety,” Doney says.
In 2016 and 2017, AAA is organizing and leading policy summits on impaired (drugged) driving, joining with other traffic safety partners, including law enforcement, the judicial community, legislators, educators and health care professionals to talk about issues, challenges and answers.
“We want to start a national conversation about
a growing issue,” says Cathy Rossi, vice president
of Public and Government Affairs for AAA Club Alliance. “Be they legal or illegal drugs, substances that are impairing more drivers create a threat to all of us on the road.”
january/february 2017
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