Is Driving While Stoned The New Driving Drunk?
With medical marijuana already legal in 15 states in the U.S., the number of drivers killed in traffic accidents with THC in their bloodstream have increased 18% between 2005 and 2011 according to the Associated Press.
This unsettling statistic is causing more debate on how, as HDNET calls it, how DW-High should be handled legally and from a law enforcement point of view.
The issue at hand is that drunk drivers can be tested almost instantaneously via breathalyzer. However, no such test exists for pot. Only blood tests exist for gauging whether THC is in the system. The downside to this is, THC stays in the bloodstream much longer than alcohol–days after being ingested.
So, a blood test would not objectively measure whether a driver was actually legally “stoned” at the time they were pulled over.
The Associated Press put together a thoughtful piece on the subject which The Blaze.com entitled, “Is ‘Drugged Driving’ the New ‘Drunk Driving’? Fatal Accidents Up 18%.”
While I’ll agree pot slows your response time when you are “baked”…I would debate any satistic that claims X number of fatal accidents that are due to drugs are because of plain old Mary Jane.
I would speculate that those accidents are the result of harder drugs like coke or heroin or LSD or crack or ice etc…
As someone that used to smoke pot in the 70′s….the only thing I wanted to do after getting baked was raid the fridge/pantry or walk to McD’s.
I think the problem with the statistics here DoR, is that just because THC was in the driver’s bloodstream does not mean the driver was impaired at the time. Because THC can take weeks or even months to full leave the bloodstream (unlike alcohol), it is hard to know if the person was impaired at the time of the accident or just had residual THC in their system.
This is in now way an endorsement of driving while impaired.
DWHigh is not nearly as harmful as DWI. Most stoned drivers drive really slow and are paranoid.