"Disturbing" study finds 19 percent of teens drive after using marijuana
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(CBS) Is driving under the influence of marijuana less dangerous than driving drunk? Nobody knows for sure, but a new survey suggests a lot of teens seem to believe it.
PICTURES: Drugged driving: 20 states with highest rates
The survey of 2,300 eleventh and twelfth graders - by Liberty Mutual Insurance and Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) - found more than one-third of teens who have driven after using marijuana say the drug doesn't distract them from driving. What's more, one in five teens admitted to driving high.
How does that compare with teen rates of drunk driving? The survey found 13 percent of teens said they had got behind the wheel after drinking, while 19 percent did not consider drinking a major distraction.
"Marijuana affects memory, judgment, and perception and can lead to poor decisions when a teen under the influence of this or other drugs gets behind the wheel of a car," Stephen Wallace, senior advisor for policy, research, and education at SADD, said in a written statement. "What keeps me up at night is that this data reflects a dangerous trend toward the acceptance of marijuana and other substances compared to our study of teens conducted just two years ago."
A 2009 survey from Liberty Mutual and SADD found 78 percent of teens considered smoking pot as "very" or "extremely" distracting to their driving.
PICTURES: 17 stoner states: Where's marijuana use highest?
The researchers said teen drivers' friends contribute to these rates. About 90 percent of teen drivers said they wouldn't drive high if asked by their passengers. But only 72 percent of teen passengers said they'd say something to a driver who has used marijuana, compared with 87 percent who would speak up if the driver had consumed alcohol.
Wallace told USA Today the survey's findings were "disturbing."
"We hear from young people who believe that marijuana actually makes them a safer driver, that they concentrate harder, drive slower," he said.
Some recent research shows otherwise. A new study of 50,000 drivers found motorists who smoked marijuana within three hours of getting behind the wheel were twice as likely to have a car accident, compared to sober motorists, HealthPop reported.
A separate study in October found that 30 percent of fatally injured drivers tested positive for drugs other than alcohol, with marijuana topping the list.
Some studies have found otherwise. According to the Huffington Post, an earlier study by Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and the University of Iowa found that people who smoked pot 30 minutes before driving did not react much differently than they had before using marijuana.
NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, wrote its own report on stoned driving in 2011, which found driving high might be riskier than driving sober, but less risky than driving drunk.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, using marijuana can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty with thinking and problem solving, and problems with learning and memory.
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http://blogs.lawyers.com/2012/04/cruising-the-high-way-safer-than-drunk-driving/
One study, entitled "Medical Marijuana Laws, Traffic Fatalities, and Alcohol Consumption" conducted in November 2011 provides evidence that marijuana is a safer substitute for alcohol when it comes to health and also makes for safer drivers.
Top Ten Reasons Marijuana Users Are Safe Drivers
When you combine all of the main results of these two decades worth of scientific research studies, the following 10 reasons marijuana drivers are safer than drunk drivers comes out like this:
1. Drivers who had been using marijuana were found to drive slower, according to a 1983 study done by U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). This was seen as a factor in their favor, since drivers who drank alcohol usually drove faster and that is part of the reason they had accidents.
2. Marijuana users were able to drive straight and not have any trouble staying in their own lanes when driving on the highway, according to a NHTSA done in 1993 in the Netherlands. The study determined also that the use of marijuana had very little effect on the person's overall driving ability.
3. Drivers who had smoked marijuana were shown to be less likely to try to pass other cars and to drive at a consistent speed, according to a University of Adelaide study done in Australia. The study showed no danger unless the drivers had also been drinking alcohol.
4. Drivers high on marijuana were also shown to be less likely to drive in a reckless fashion, according to a study done in 2000 in the UK by the UK Transport Research Lab. The study was done using drivers on driving simulators over a period of a month and was actually undertaken to show that pot was a cause for impairment, but instead it showed the opposite and confirmed that these drivers were actually much safer than some of the other drivers on the road.
5. States that allow the legal use of marijuana for medical reasons are noticing less traffic fatalities; for instance, in Colorado and Montana there has been a nine percent drop in traffic fatalities and a five percent drop in beer sales. The conclusion was that using marijuana actually has helped save lives. Medical marijuana is allowed in 16 states in the U.S.
6. Low doses of marijuana in a person's system was found by tests in Canada in 2002 to have little effect on a person's ability to drive a car, and that these drivers were in much fewer car crashes than alcohol drinkers.
7. Most marijuana smokers have fewer crashes because they don't even drive in the first place and just stay home thus concluded more than one of these tests on pot smoking and driving.
8. Marijuana smokers are thought to be more sober drivers. Traffic information from 13 states where medical marijuana is legal showed that these drivers were actually safer and more careful than many other drivers on the road. These studies were confirmed by the University of Colorado and the Montana State University when they compared a relationship between legal marijuana use and deaths in traffic accidents in those states. The studies done by a group called the Truth About Cars showed that traffic deaths fell nine percent in states with legal use of medical marijuana.
9. Multiple studies showed that marijuana smokers were less likely to be risk takers than those that use alcohol. The studies showed that the marijuana calmed them down and made them actually pay more attention to their abilities. All of these tests and research studies showed that while some people think that marijuana is a major cause of traffic problems, in reality it may make the users even safer when they get behind the wheel.
10. Marijuana smoking drivers were shown to drive at prescribed following distances, which made them less likely to cause or have crashes.
.. stick *that* in your pipe, and smoke it!
http://www.theweeklyconstitutional.com/news/headlines/1035-why-you-should-always-spark-up-before-hitting-the-road
For decades, marijuana advocates have argued that pot has a significantly different effect on driving ability than alcohol. But if you take the word of one auto insurance company, stoned is actually the safest way to drive. 4AutoinsuranceQuote.org is making that case based on years' worth of scientific studies, including some from the US National Highway Transportation Safety Administration that found motorists under the influence of marijuana tended to drive slower and have accident responsibility rates lower than those of drug-free drivers.
http://blogs.lawyers.com/2012/04/cruising-the-high-way-safer-than-drunk-driving/
But, unlike with alcohol, the accident risk caused by cannabis, particularly among those who are not acutely intoxicated, appears limited because subjects under its influence are generally aware of their impairment and compensate to some extent, such as by slowing down and by focusing their attention when they know a response will be required. [Allison Smiley. Marijuana: On-Road and Driving Simulator Studies]
This response is the opposite of that exhibited by drivers under the influence of alcohol, who tend to drive in a more risky manner proportional to their intoxication.[United Kingdom's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. The Classification of Cannabis Under the Misuse of Drugs Act of 1971. 2002: See specifically: Chapter 4, Section 4.3.5: "Cannabis differs from alcohol; ... it seems not to increase risk-taking behavior. This may explain why it appears to play a smaller role than alcohol in road traffic accidents."]
An investigator from Aalborg University and the Institute of Transport Economics in Oslo assessed the risk of road accident associated with drivers' use of licit and illicit drugs, including amphetamines, analgesics, anti-asthmatics, anti-depressives, anti-histamines, benzodiazepines, cannabis, cocaine, opiates, penicillin and zopiclone (a sleeping pill). His study reviewed data from 66 separate studies evaluating the use of illicit or prescribed drugs on accident risk; the study found that cannabis was associated with minor, but not significantly increased odds of traffic injury (1.06) or fatal accident (1.25). By comparison, opiates (1.44), benzodiazepine tranquillizers (2.30), anti-depressants (1.32), cocaine (2.96), amphetamines (4.46), and the sleeping aid zopiclone (2.60) were all associated with a greater risk of fatal accident than cannabis. Anti-histamines (1.12) and penicillin (1.12) were associated with comparable odds to cannabis.
You see, on December 30, I was hit and found not at fault. Now, 60 days later, my car is still in the same condition, and it's been a wild ride.
Also, I was in California for Christmas, and well, now that Saint Patricks Day is coming up, I don't know what to do.
Here's my situation-
FIRST, Liberty Mutual Insurance sent me someone else's car keys, and title. They also included someone else's address and social security information. I thought "Hey, this is a great company", I'm glad I switched, they get you back on the road fast!
NEXT, they requested my title before offering any firm numbers (in writing). So I had to overnight mail my keys and title to them.
AFTER THIS, They provided me with some numbers, which I didn't necessarily agree with. BUT BECAUSE THEY HAD MY TITLE, I was unable to get a title loan. They also refused to call me back to get accurate address information-- I was (and still am) on vacation in California, and move from place to place as hotel prices change.
LIBERTY MUTUAL mailed my check to an address I was no longer at, along with my title and keys too.
I DONT THINK ANYONE AT LIBERTY MUTUAL CAN USE A PHONE.
In any case, Now, I have contacted insurance boards from both Colorado (Where I'm from) as well as California because Liberty Mutual failed to tell me under California Law, I can get my own estimate for repairs. What should have been a $1000 repair (cosmetic bumper cover) is actually much, much more, and their own shop said the engine mount was damaged (which I performed a visual inspection and it isn't) and included other issues not related to the accident, but instead get the car back to "showroom quality", which was not necessary for a christmas holiday claim.
I had to take a job in California while I waited for Liberty Mutual to quit hotboxing it.
Because I did not have the title or keys, I could not get the repairs done myself, so I waited for Liberty Mutual To responsibly set expectations with me (which would have only required a phone call) and as a result, I really don't trust anything Liberty Mutual says, and would pursuade you to stay away too.
I'd be real pissed if I learned Liberty Mutual sent my keys, title, address, phone number, and social security information. But I imagine it happens often which is why I requested an operational audit (in an email to their CEO) and other members on their Board Of Directors, CC'ed Multiple Insurance Boards too. I haven't heard back from them yet.
My father is a Senior Deputy Sheriff in Arapahoe County, CO. His team put Sheriff Patrick Sullivan in his jail. Former Sheriff Patrick Sullivan was selling meth to kids. My father runs that jail, and as long as people are high on the job (or just plain stupid) when they send other people's keys and social security info, well, we can test for that in Arapahoe County. Because well, California Insurance Board said I have a very strong claim in Colorado.
Give them a safer alternative.
I doubt that one's changed very little and I'd bet it is worse given how binge-drinking seems to be all the rage today with America's addled youth.
Meh. Must be a slow news day.