6 minute read
Driving High
As more states are legalizing what are the impacts and or correlations in DUI. Is alcohol DUI decreasing?
We all know that driving drunk is a horrible and dangerous thing to do. In fact, before any state had legalized recreational marijuana, there were nearly 10,000 deaths associated with driving under the influence of alcohol according to the US Department of Transportation. The next year, 2012, had an increase of drunk driving deaths - 10,322.
When Ohio became the 25th state to legalize marijuana in 2016, drunk driving deaths were 10,497, that account for 28% of all traffic-related deaths. In 2020, there was a 9% increase in drunk driving deaths and at that point, there were nearly 35 states with some sort of legalized marijuana. Does marijuana have any correlation to these statistics? Let’s find out.
Now that marijuana has been legalized in over half of the United States, you may have seen some commercials condemning driving high as well. Like many people who partake in marijuana, you may be thinking that driving high can’t be as bad as driving drunk. Many of us have no idea what the statistics are when it comes to driving under the influence of marijuana.
While it has been recorded by many, both in professional and personal areas, that people driving while under the influence of marijuana tend to be more careful than drunk drivers there is no definitive scientific answer. Regardless, driving under the influence of anything is dangerous and can end up ending someone's life or your own.
First of all, even at a quick glance, you can tell the data is all over the place. Why is that? Scientific testing is behind on how to test for cannabis intoxication in comparison to testing for alcohol. Additionally, alcohol impairment is typically more visibly apparent than cannabis impairment.
A 2010 study conducted by the National Library of Medicine explains the effect on driving that cannabis has in comparison with alcohol. “In summary, laboratory tests and driving studies show that cannabis may acutely impair several drivingrelated skills in a dose-related fashion, but that the effects between individuals vary more than they do with alcohol because of tolerance, differences in smoking technique, and different absorptions of THC.
Overall, though, case-control and culpability studies have been inconclusive, a determination reached by several other recent reviewers. Similar disagreements have never existed in the literature on alcohol use and crash risk.”
The Washington Post reported,
This doesn’t mean we all can just smoke and drive all we want but it does mean that we have very little proven data on smoking weed and driving. The Post also goes on to say that THC affects different people in different ways. Some people are only mildly affected by it while some will fall asleep on the couch 30 minutes after a five milligram edible or three puffs from a joint; it is all subjective.
This year it was reported by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health that 40% of people who reported using alcohol and marijuana also had a DUI between 2016-2019. The subjects of this study had claimed that “8% reported daily alcohol use, 20% daily cannabis use, and 21% met criteria for alcohol use disorder, and 18% for cannabis use disorder.
Over a quarter of the sample (28%) reported simultaneous alcohol/cannabis use.” This fact may lead some people to believe that cannabis is now simply adding to the intoxication of those who are actively drunk driving and not decreasing it as we have hoped.
Let’s take a look at what drunk driving statistics are from this year when the state legalized recreational marijuana. For this, we will only cover the first five legalized states since they’ve had the longest time to adjust.
These numbers are from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and reflect statistics from alcohol-related traffic deaths and do take into account the population:
Colorado
Legalized in 2012, there were 221 deaths accounting for 35% of all deadly crashes in the state.
Washington
Also legalized in 2012, the states had 195, accounting for 36%.
Alaska
Legal since 2014, had 36 deaths, accounting for 45%.
Oregon
Also legal since 2014, had 185, accounting for 37%.
California
Legalized two years later (2016), there were 1,241 deaths, accounting for 35%.
We can compare these to the states where cannabis is fully illegal:
Idaho
Experienced 66 deaths, accounting for 29%.
Wyoming
Had 39, accounting for 35%.
Kansas
Had 98, accounting for 24%.
South Carolina
Lastly, had 335 deaths, accounting for 32%.
One of those is the fact that during the COVID-19 pandemic, drunk driving deaths increased by nearly 5% even though the total miles traveled had decreased by 14.5%. In just a year the death rate increased by .25%. There are always more factors to drunk driving statistics than we can record.
With all this information, it can be reasonably concluded that drunk driving is still very rampant with an unfortunate death count still sitting around the 10,000’s annual.
Additionally, it seems that some people didn’t stop drinking and driving but simply added marijuana to the equation. While this is not the majority of people, we all still must remain vigilant while driving during typical “partying hours.”
I, like many other people, am disappointed with these statistics. I had hoped that there would be an obvious change happening and there doesn’t seem to be.
Although there may be other factors contributing, just by looking at the numbers cannabis legalization hasn’t made a huge impact positively or negatively when it comes to drunk driving. We shouldn’t give up hope, however, with proper education, we can still manage some change within our lifetime.
