Category Archives: Driving

Driving

Parents: Protect Your teen from Marijuana-Impaired Driving

The National Transportation Safety Board issued a safety alert to parents on July 18th: Parents: Protect Your Teen from Marijuana-Impaired Driving.  A recent investigation into an Oklahoma crash highlights the risks associated with marijuana-impaired driving among teens.  National Highway Safety Board released its report on a collision in Tishomingo, Oklahoma.  Six teen girls, ages 15-17 died in March  2022: Gracie Machado, Brooklyn Triplett, Austin Holt, Madison Robertson, Addison Gratz and Memory Wilson.  They were among the more than 3,600 teens who died in vehicle crashes that year.

The NTSB investigation showed that the teen driver approached an intersection and briefly slowed down at the stop sign.  She did not stop but accelerated and turned left in front of an oncoming truck tractor in combination with a trailer loaded with gravel. The driver and front-seat passenger wore seatbelts, but four girls in the overcrowded backseat did not.   The driver was impaired by the recent use of marijuana. 

This crash killed more teens than others last year, but it’s not unique. In South Elgin, IL on August 31, 2023,  Aanomeya Henry of Elgin drove to school and turned left, failing to yield to an oncoming dump truck at 7 a.m.  She killed two of her passengers. “Henry was driving under the influence of marijuana, according to news reports.”  Kamorra Campbell,17, and Tahlulah Henry, 16, the driver’s sister died immediately.  A third passenger suffered injuries.  It was 7 in the morning — before school started!  This idea of getting stoned during the school day suggests the need for a new parent movement.

Our problem in the US

• Marijuana use is impairing. It decreases motor coordination, slows reaction time, and impairs judgment of time and distance, all of which are critical for driving.1 

• Research on crashes in Washington state, which legalized marijuana, has shown that more drivers involved in fatal crashes tested positive for marijuana after legalization.2 

• Although marijuana may be legal in some states, driving while impaired is unsafe and illegal in all states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. 

• Driving under the influence of marijuana is dangerous for all drivers, but teens are especially vulnerable because of their limited driving experience.

• In 2022, 3,615 teen drivers (ages 15 to 19) were involved in crashes that included fatalities.3

  • Both medical marijuana states and legalization states do a horrible job of educating drivers.  In California, for example,  a commission gave the state 31 recommendations to improve safety after legalization.  The legislature never enacted any of it into law, perhaps due to opposition from the pot industry

What can parents do? 

Since schools are no longer obligated to give drug information, parents must fill in the gaps.

•  When talking to your teen about driving safety, be sure to address the risks of marijuana-impaired driving (just like drunk driving). 

•  Talk to your teen about the risks of marijuana use and its impairing effects on motor coordination, judgment, and reaction time. Discuss how marijuana use can negatively affect your teen’s ability to drive safely. 

•  Remind your teen that driving while impaired is illegal. Some states have zero-tolerance policies not just for impairment, but for any recent marijuana use before driving. 

•  Discuss strategies for making safe and responsible choices including the avoidance of marijuana-impaired driving or riding with marijuana-impaired drivers. 

• Set the example by driving unimpaired by any drugs (legal or illegal). Be consistent between the messages you give your teen and your own driving behaviors. Novice teen drivers most often learn by observing their parents.

1National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). 2014. “Cannabis/Marijuana.” In Drugs and Human Performance Fact Sheets, DOT HS 809 725, 7-12. Washington, D.C. Revised April 2014.

2Tefft, B.C. and L.S. Arnold. 2020. Cannabis Use Among Drivers in Fatal Crashes in Washington State Before and After Legalization. Research Brief. Washington, D.C.: AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

3NHTSA. 2024. Teen Distracted Driver Data: Teens and Distracted Driving in 2022.” Washington, D.C. 

<NTSB Warning re teens and driving and marijuana use July 2024.pdf>

<Legislative Report Jan 21 FINAL.pdf>

 

 

 

 

Driving, Editorial, Uncategorized

Legal Marijuana Is Making Roads Deadlier

Cannabis-related traffic fatalities are a threat to public safety. Governments need to get serious.

By the Bloomberg News Editorial Board,   April 4, 2024

Marijuana legalization is killing a lot of people. Not slowly — though some studies suggest that it may be doing that, too — but quickly, in car crashes. It’s one more symptom of the disastrous rush by lawmakers to capitalize on cannabis sales without doing the work needed to keep the public safe. 

In Canada, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2018, one study found a 475% increase in emergency-room visits for cannabis-related crashes in Ontario between 2010 and 2021. Many more cases likely went undetected, owing to a dearth of reliable testing for driving while high. 

In the US, the proportion of motor-vehicle fatalities involving cannabis use soared to 21.5% in 2018, up from 9% in 2000. One analysis found a 10% increase in vehicular deaths, on average, following legalization by states. In California, the increase was 14%; in Oregon, it was 22%. 

This suggests that more than 1,000 Americans could be dying annually because of marijuana-related accidents — and that’s just in states where legalization has occurred. Given the ease of transporting the drug across state lines, the real number could be far higher. 

The cause of these deaths isn’t just the drug itself. It’s ignorance. A recent study found that about half of marijuana users thought they were OK to drive 90 minutes after inhaling or ingesting the drug, yet their driving performance in a simulated vehicle was as bad as it had been after 30 minutes. Evidence suggests people should wait a minimum of four hours before getting behind the wheel; some experts recommend eight to 12 hours. 

That people don’t know this is the fault of governments, which have rushed headlong into legalization without doing the required research or adopting necessary safeguards. In effect, they’re conducting live experiments on their own citizens. Voters should hold officials accountable for boosting public awareness and developing better detection technology.

The fight against drinking and driving offers a useful precedent. After widespread government-sponsored campaigns helped stigmatize such conduct, drunk-driving fatalities were cut in half. Stronger enforcement also played a part. The advent of Breathalyzers made drinkers think twice before getting behind the wheel. 

So far, marijuana users don’t face the same disincentive, partly because the technology for roadside testing isn’t reliable or widespread. Fear of arrest is a powerful public-policy lever, but right now, many drivers are getting high with impunity, and the public is paying a high price.

Bloomberg News published this editorial on April 4, 2024. It was reprinted in part by the Chicago Tribune on April 10, 2024. 

The photo above comes from a crash that killed three teens and injured another near Lynnwood, WA in July, 2017. Washington legalized marijuana in 2012, and commercialized it in 2014.

Child Endangerment, Driving, Politics, Teens

Oklahoma votes on marijuana ballot in March

In 2018, Oklahoma Senator James Lankford warned of the medical marijuana question on the state ballot: “This state question is being sold to Oklahomans as a compassionate medical marijuana bill by outside groups that actually want access to recreational marijuana.”

The time has come, and Oklahomans will vote next month on Question 820, a marijuana legalization and commercialization bill. The State Supreme Court ruled that the ballot could not be included in the 2022 midterm election. Governor Kevin Stitt set the date for March 7.

By December 31, 2022, five donors gave over $3.2 million in support of legalizing marijuana, a big commercial enterprise. According to Ballotpedia, the opposition had not yet raised money.  However, Protect Our Kids PAC is currently raising funds to oppose the ballot. Continue reading Oklahoma votes on marijuana ballot in March →

Driving, News Articles

Parents Warn Legal Marijuana Increases Traffic Deaths

For Immediate Release

Parents Opposed to Pot Warns Retail Marijuana Sales Increases Traffic Deaths

Merrifield, VA –March 31, 2022–As New Mexico, New Jersey, New York and Virginia move to legalize commercial sales of marijuana, Parents Opposed to Pot warns people in those states to expect a rise in traffic deaths. In Illinois, the first state to commercialize marijuana through the state legislature (June 2019), traffic deaths rose 33 percent in the first two years after cannabis shops opened on January 1, 2020.

Traffic deaths in Illinois were 1,010 in 2019.In 2020, which included the COVID lockdowns, traffic deaths rose 18.2 percent to 1,196. Then in 2021, traffic deaths rose to 1,342, according the state website.

A study published in the June 2020 Journal of American Medical Association Internal Medicine estimated nationwide marijuana legalization would result in 6,800 more traffic deaths each year.  The researchers looked at the first four states to legalize marijuana, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska, and compared them before and after with states that had neither recreational nor medical marijuana. 

Congress is expected to vote on the MORE Act this week, a move to legalize marijuana nationally that the House is expected to vote on this week. 

Two years ago, an American Automobile Association post-legalization study of Washington state, found drivers involved in fatal crashes who test positive for marijuana, doubled.[1] A study in 2019, five years after Washington and Colorado opened retail cannabis shops found a statistically significant increase in marijuana related traffic fatalities of 2% in these states.[2]

Before the Illinois state legislature passed a bill to legalize pot in May 2019, the Illinois Sheriff’s Association, warned of the need for a roadside test comparable to the breathalyzer for alcohol.[3] States legalized marijuana without an adequate test to find out if a driver is marijuana impaired.

As of 2021, Illinois had trained only 122 law enforcement officials trained as Drug Recognition Experts in the entire state.  According to Chicago- HIDTA,Illinois does not distinguish DUI arrests made for alcohol, marijuana, or other substances.

Marijuana poses numerous risks to safe driving. “The drug causes alterations in mental status, vigilance, judgment, and other neurologic functions. Studies have shown that impairment persists even when the driver no longer feels high. Because THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) is fat soluble it leaves the blood quickly and builds up in the brain. Daily users have been shown to have cognitive impairment that lasts weeks after stopping marijuana,” explains Russell Kamer, MD, a board member of Parents Opposed to Pot, a nonprofit with a mission to educate parents.

Parents Opposed to Pot is tracking news reports of child deaths related to adults under the influence of marijuana. Since 2012, when Colorado first legalized recreational marijuana, at least 39 children died in DUID marijuana car crashes related to parent or caregiver drug usage.[4]  

Parents Opposed to Pot is a 501C3 nonprofit based in Merrifield, Virginia. Follow PopPot in social media: Twitter @poppotgroup, Facebook @poppotorg. For more information, visit the website, PopPot.org or call phone 773-322-7523.

[1] https://newsroom.aaa.com/2020/01/fatal-crashes-involving-drivers-who-test-positive-for-marijuana-increase-after-state-legalizes-drug/

[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001457519310267

[3] https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/drivers-influence-marijuana-crash-illinois-legalization/

[4] https://poppot.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/122921-Child-dangers-fact-sheet-FINAL.pdf