Pubdate: Mon, 20 Feb 2012
Source: Daily Nebraskan (U of NE, NE Edu)
Copyright: 2012 Daily Nebraskan
Contact:  http://www.dailynebraskan.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1176
Author: Conor Dunn
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?224 (Cannabis and Driving)

STUDY: WEED UPS ACCIDENT CHANCE

Marijuana Policy Project Refutes Claims of Study, Says It Doesn't 
Account for All Factors

Smoking marijuana just a few hours before driving nearly doubles a 
person's risk of getting into a car accident, a recent study found.

The study was conducted by researchers from Dalhousie University in 
Halifax, Nova Scotia, and released in the British Medical Journal. 
The research came from nine studies that sampled about 50,000 drivers.

The crashes studied occurred on public roads and included at least 
one moving vehicle. The researchers looked at evidence of marijuana 
from blood tests and self-reported drug use. They discovered people 
who smoked three hours before driving were twice as likely to be in a 
fatal car accident.

Morgan Fox, communications manager for the Marijuana Policy Project, 
was not convinced.

"While we at the Marijuana Policy Project hold that it is a bad idea 
to drive under the influence of any substance," Fox said, "the 
dangers of driving while under the influence of marijuana are often 
greatly exaggerated."

The Marijuana Policy Project is the largest non-profit organization 
working on marijuana policy reform in the United States. The 
organization envisions "a nation where marijuana is legally regulated 
similarly to alcohol, marijuana education is honest and realistic and 
treatment for problem marijuana users is non-coercive and geared 
toward reducing harm."

Fox said the Canadian driving study was more concerned with 
individual driving ability. It doesn't take into account a variety of 
factors that could play a role in determining the risk of driving 
while under the influence of marijuana and the effects it would have 
on traffic-fatality statistics.

"The authors themselves pointed out several shortcomings in the 
study," Fox said.

The researchers said that because only one of the included studies 
assessed infrequent or habitual use of cannabis by drivers, they were 
unable to distinguish between tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) amounts -- 
the chemical found in cannabis that causes the psychoactive effects 
of feeling "high."

The researchers also said the study's results should be interpreted 
with caution because they were only looking at nine studies when 
current guidelines do not recommend testing for an overall analysis 
of fewer than 10 studies.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported marijuana and 
cocaine are involved in about 18 percent of motor vehicle driver 
deaths. These drugs are often used in combination with alcohol.

Fred Zwonechek, administrator for the Nebraska Office of Highway 
Safety, said Nebraska state law doesn't require testing for drugs 
other than alcohol when a fatal crash occurs.

"However, counties are increasingly conducting toxicology testing of 
more of these drivers because of the involvement of our increasing 
numbers of trained law enforcement Drug Recognition Experts (DREs)," he said.

Zwonechek said these officers are trained to conduct evaluations of 
surviving drivers to determine if the individuals are under the 
influence of drugs and to what category those drugs belong.

According to the reported evaluations in Nebraska, more than 55 
percent were for suspected cannabis from 2007 to 2011. Of the 1,125 
DRE evaluations, about 90 percent were confirmed as cannabis.

Between 2007 and 2011, there were 11 fatal crashes involving drivers 
that tested positive for marijuana.

Fox said one of the most frequent arguments against marijuana policy 
reform is that if marijuana is legal, there will be a tremendous 
increase in traffic fatalities.

"This argument does not hold," Fox said, "because people are already 
using marijuana while driving and they are already being dealt with 
by law enforcement."

Fox said if marijuana is easier to legally obtain, many people will 
substitute it for alcohol, which in turn leads to fewer traffic 
fatalities statistically.

A recent study published in the Science Daily agreed with Fox's 
viewpoint, reporting some states that passed medical marijuana laws, 
traffic fatalities dropped an average of 9 percent and sales of beer 
dropped 5 percent.

"While this study does not prove a casual relationship, the 
correlation is irrefutable," Fox said.

Zwonechek said that while other drugs, both illicit and prescription, 
are being increasingly detected in fatal crashes, alcohol continues 
to be the largest drug contributing to driving under the influence.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom