Study: Fatal Car Crashes Involving Marijuana Have Tripled

SEATTLE (CBS Seattle) – According to a recent study, fatal car crashes involving pot use have tripled in the U.S.

“Currently, one of nine drivers involved in fatal crashes would test positive for marijuana,” Dr. Guohua Li, director of the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia, and co-author of the study told HealthDay News.

Researchers from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health gathered data from six states – California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and West Virginia – that perform toxicology tests on drivers involved in fatal car accidents. This data included over 23,500 drivers that died within one hour of a crash between 1999 and 2010.

Li reported in the study that alcohol contributed to about 40 percent of traffic fatalities throughout the decade.

The researchers found that drugs played an increasing role in fatal traffic accidents. Drugged driving accounted for more than 28 percent of traffic deaths in 2010, which is 16 percent more than it was in 1999. The researchers also found that marijuana was the main drug involved in the increase. It contributed to 12 percent of fatal crashes, compared to only 4 percent in 1999.

“If a driver is under the influence of alcohol, their risk of a fatal crash is 13 times higher than the risk of the driver who is not under the influence of alcohol,” Li said. “But if the driver is under the influence of both alcohol and marijuana, their risk increased to 24 times that of a sober person.”

Researchers found that the increase in marijuana use occurred across all ages for males and females.

Jonathan Adkins, deputy executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, told HealthDay News that marijuana impairs driving in much the same way that alcohol does.

It bereaves me that I will probably not live to see the unconstitutional war on some drugs thrown into the fascist dustbin of history. In the words of Captain Redlegs from The Outlaw Josey Wales, “Doin’ right ain’t got no end.”

That cold-blooded sentence is the motto of every tyrant — indeed of most rulers — in the world. That belief is ancient: both Jesus and Aesop noticed that tyrants always call themselves benefactors. As it is with rulers (who are the most prolific killers of all), it is with murderers: all must justify what they do, rationalize it to themselves. Murderers do their crimes for their own selves; rulers always claim it is for the greater good. “I’m from the government,” goes the old but scarily true joke, “and I’m here to help you.” You may think you are, but, no, you’re not!

The expression is meaningful, because correlation is so horribly abused as being causative. The book How To Deceive With Statistics is to a great extent about that.

Do rising hem heights in women’s dresses make the stock market go up? Close to a 100% correlation.

In this case, significant impairment with marijuana lasts just a few hours, but significant amounts of marijuana last in the body for two weeks. So unless someone involved in an accident admits that they smoked marijuana in the few hours before an accident, causation is less than marginal, it is incidental. You might as well blame it on coffee or soda.

If you examine these accidents on an individual basis, you would likely find that at some point an officer smelled marijuana, so *assumed* marijuana impairment. This is because there is no test for marijuana impairment, just its presence in the blood.

However, vehicle contamination with the marijuana smell can last for months. Some US government facilities that regularly dog-test for marijuana actually issued waivers for newly purchased used vehicles that are so contaminated they will always smell of marijuana.

Guns, medical marijuana collide in Illinois rules
CHICAGO — Guns and marijuana don’t mix, according to federal authorities, even if the gun is a legally held firearm and the drug is recommended by a doctor.

By Carla K. Johnson
The Associated Press

Feb 5, 2014 at 11:48 AM

CHICAGO — Guns and marijuana don’t mix, according to federal authorities, even if the gun is a legally held firearm and the drug is recommended by a doctor.

That interpretation of federal law is turning up in Illinois’ draft medical marijuana regulations to the frustration of patients and caregivers.

As the state launches its first medical cannabis program, firearms ownership is overshadowing other issues such as the $150 proposed annual fee for patients and how new medical conditions would be added to an approved-for-use list.

“People aren’t yelling at me about the $150. They’re yelling at me about this issue,” said Chris Lindsey, legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project, a national group that supports legally regulated marijuana.

Lindsey said he believes it’s the first time a state agency anywhere in the country “has pointed to a state law and decided that patients may not be able to possess a firearm.” And Karmen Hanson, medical marijuana policy expert for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said she’s not aware of any state laws that address firearms ownership among medical marijuana patients or their caregivers.

Some Illinois patients will continue to use marijuana illegally rather than give up their guns, said Julie Falco of Chicago, who speaks openly about how she has used cannabis to control her pain from multiple sclerosis.

Brian Hilton of Arlington Heights is one of them. He’s a gun owner who wants to use marijuana legally to control pain from a spinal cord injury, but he’s reconsidering applying for a medical marijuana card.

“I would be forced to surrender my gun rights, and that would put my family at great risk,” said Hilton, who makes a living repairing musical instruments. “I would rather keep my weapons and stay underground.”

The dispute centers on 93 words out of 48 pages of rules the Illinois Department of Public Health has proposed. The wording, in effect, advises gun owners they’ll be in violation of state and federal law if they’re approved for a medical marijuana card and don’t give up their firearms. It says gun owners who obtain medical marijuana cards “may be subject to administrative proceedings by the Illinois State Police if they do not voluntarily surrender” their firearm owners identification cards or concealed carry permits.

Caregivers, too, who apply for medical marijuana cards would be required to certify they understand they “may not possess firearms under relevant state and federal laws.” It’s still unclear how any of this would be enforced.

Sandy Champion of Somonauk owns guns and plans to apply for a caregiver card so she can legally obtain marijuana for her husband, Jim, who has multiple sclerosis. She has no plans to use the drug herself.

http://www.sj-r.com/article/20140205/NEWS/140209674

Personally, I would be more concerned with the millions of people loaded up on legal psychotropic medications than a person who has used marijuana.

I agree with you about psychotropic medications having a negative effect on people's driving and it is a problem. However, as a person who just retired after 25 years working for a fire department in a large town in Washington State... my impression is that in the last few years the number of stoned drivers causing serious “accidents” has been going way up. They are not difficult for us to spot after the fact. Increased marijuana use is already becoming a traffic safety issue... It is interesting that most pot users don't believe that it affects their own driving in a negative way. People who drink and drive generally feel the same way but with marijuana users it seems to be a much more strongly held belief.

My wife and I have a couple of older close friends who use a lot of marijuana for "medicinal purposes". The two of them have wrecked their Prius five times in the last year. The lady's sister told my wife that if they have one more accident that their insurance will be cancelled. They came up to our house a few days ago, he wanted to drive down to Costco while our wives visited. He scared the hell out of me in the Costco parking lot by driving too fast, nearly hitting a couple of other cars and almost running over a Costco employee pushing grocery carts. As we talked and I observed him I realized that he was probably high and it was most likely affecting his judgment.

I just hope that they lose their insurance and their licenses before they seriously injure or kill someone.

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