How many times have you heard someone say, “Don’t worry, I can drive drunk?” Probably not many. Drunk driving has become synonymous with reckless and stupid. It is common knowledge that this choice alone could ruin your life in an instant. Of course, it still happens far too often, but nobody is willing to admit to the stupidity. If you did hear someone claim to be able to drive drunk, would you get in the car with them? Would you trust a drunk person with your life? I’m guessing most have common sense enough to say, “Hell no.” All of those lectures in high school and commercials detailing the tragic repercussions of booze cruising have somehow gotten through to (most of) us.
But now change the scenario. Instead of alcohol on this person’s breath, it’s weed creating the intoxicating effect. Now your number changes doesn’t it? I’ve heard countless people make the claim before driving friends. They’ll say the weed calms them down, makes them more alert and better suited to drive. This eases their friends’ worries, and all of a sudden they have a very easy way to appoint a designated driver without making anyone miss out on the fun. It’s win-win, right? Think again.
While it is true that some people might find it significantly easier to drive while high than while drunk, it never makes stoned driving OK. Think about the way pot-smokers tend to act when they are high. They’ll zone out for a bit, concentrate heavily on one thing, or make nonsense or stupid comments. Who’s to say they wouldn’t do stupid things while driving? Some say that the paranoid side effect of weed makes drivers concentrate more heavily on the road. But whether you’re more mellow and concentrated, or jittery and paranoid while high, you’re still not in your regular state of mind. And it’s impossible to trust yourself to go through your regular driving routine in that situation.
A February 2014 International Business Times article citing the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention reported that one in nine drivers who were involved in fatal car accidents had marijuana in their systems. Driving high indeed may make drivers more aware and careful on the road, but a huge factor is one’s loss of quick reflexes while stoned. According to an article by Time Inc., a stoned driver may be less likely to get into minor accidents, like rear-ending someone or running off the road, but when it comes to the most dangerous potential accidents, like a car coming out of nowhere or a pedestrian walking in front of the car, they are less likely to be able to react quickly, thus associating driving while high with more fatal accidents.
One study conducted by the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office in Washington state actually tested volunteers who were instructed to get high and then drive a drive-school vehicle that could be taken over by the examiner at any time. When the volunteers had smoked three to seven times the legal limit of five nanograms of THC, the active ingredient in weed (as is the law in Colorado as well), they were driving much more slowly than they should, but were still deemed fit to drive, offering evidence that driving while high may be OK. The study, however, did not test for quick reaction skills. In addition, once the participants had smoked nearly a gram of weed, their driving skills were significantly impaired. Two of the three knocked over several cones on the test driving course, and the third would have run into an observing officer if the examiner hadn’t taken the wheel. All three were deemed very unsafe to drive by the examiner and observing officers.
A New York Times article also cited Dr. Huestis of the National Institute of Drug Abuse who claimed that several researchers have estimated that your risk of getting in an accident is doubled with any level of measurable THC in the system, showing there is no question that driving while high poses a real danger. Even if some, like the participants in the Thurston County study, feel it is safe for them to drive after consuming smaller amounts of marijuana, the drug affects every person differently. A chronic stoner could smoke the same amount as a first-time user and feel completely able to function while the first-time user is out of it. Different strains of weed could affect users differently as well, and it is hard to tell exactly how much we have consumed (unlike alcohol when we can count the number of drinks). Even the food we consume before and afterwards could change our reaction. Caffeine for instance, in combination with weed, can make some especially jittery and paranoid. So it’s never safe to say that in every instance you smoke, you’ll be safe to drive just because that was the case once. So common sense tells us that we should never do it. It’s also never safe to say that just because your friend says they can smoke and drive, you can too.
But unfortunately, according to a report from the American Journal of Epidemiology, the number of people driving high is increasing. Between the years of 1999 and 2010, the percentage of car-crash drivers who had marijuana in their system increased from 4.2 percent to 12.2 percent, indicating that more people are finding it acceptable to drive high, and they’re paying the consequences. This is because it is becoming culturally acceptable and even cool to claim we’re able to drive high.
One slight upside to this, according to Time Inc., is that some studies have found the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington (and thus the increase in pot smokers) has resulted in less drunk drivers on the road because people are choosing to drive high rather than drunk. It is indeed much better to have stoners on the road instead of drunks (as drunk driving will increase your risk of accidents up to five times compared to two), but neither are good to have. Both types of intoxicated driving need to stop and more needs to be done, especially when it comes to educating the public about the dangers of driving high.
Colorado did recently launch a campaign entitled “Drive High: Get a DUI,” which has allocated $1 million to humorous television ads reminding citizens that while smoking weed may be legal now, driving afterwards is not and will result in the same consequences as driving drunk. This is heading in the right direction, but there needs to be a bigger campaign on a national scale. It has become common knowledge that driving drunk is a terrible idea due to the huge amount of campaigns against it (such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and classes taught in high school. It is time for the same attention to be given to driving high. Simply put, it’s dangerous and unnecessary, and it could screw up your own life or, worse, someone else’s. If you’re 21 and in Colorado or Washington State, by all means, smoke to your heart’s content, but please stay home when you do.
