Pubdate: Sat, 30 Nov 2013
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/submissions/#1
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Dan Freedman

AS LAWS ON POT EASE, CONCERNS ABOUT DUI RISE

WASHINGTON - As California advocates ponder a renewed push to 
legalize marijuana for adults, law enforcement officials and traffic 
safety experts are warning of a side effect of states allowing the 
drug for medical or recreational use: the danger caused by people 
driving while high.

Research is incomplete on how much marijuana it takes to impair 
driving. But Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of 
National Drug Control Policy, said being even a little intoxicated on 
marijuana is unacceptable.

"Smoking marijuana has a very negative effect on your ability to 
operate a motor vehicle," Kerlikowske said. "It's quite dangerous to 
you, your passengers and others on the road."

Marijuana advocates acknowledge that driving under the influence of 
cannabis is ill-advised. But they argue that law enforcement's 
concern is overblown, and point to a 2012 study that concluded the 
auto accident risk posed by marijuana is on par with antihistamines 
and penicillin.

Legalization moves

The debate over marijuana and highway safety is set against the 
backdrop of last year's decision by Washington state and Colorado 
voters to legalize marijuana for personal use, as well as the passage 
of medical marijuana laws in California and 19 other states. 
Californians rejected full legalization in 2010, but advocates buoyed 
by polls showing increasing public acceptance of recreational use by 
adults hope to return to the ballot next year or 2016.

Law enforcement officials say that while traffic fatalities in 
Colorado decreased 16 percent from 2006 to 2011, deaths involving 
drivers testing positive for just marijuana increased 114 percent 
during the same period.

And in Washington, according to Chuck Hayes of the International 
Association of Chiefs of Police, tests confirming the presence in 
drivers of THC - marijuana's active ingredient - have made up 42 
percent of the state's toxicology lab caseload this year, an increase 
from 26 percent last year.

"I'm not sure the public really understands the danger of it," said 
Hayes, a retired Oregon State Police captain who trains police 
officers to be drug-recognition experts. "A lot of education needs to 
be done in this area."

Threat to patients

But those favoring marijuana legalization for medical or recreational 
uses insist the greater danger comes from one-size-fits-all state 
laws that target anyone behind the wheel with traces of THC in their 
system, or peg violations to a particular THC blood-test threshold.

Such laws, they say, are a particular danger to medical marijuana 
users because THC lingers in blood and urine for days after 
consumption. These "zero tolerance" laws are on the books in 14 states.

"The data doesn't support the disproportionate policy response that 
law enforcement is asking for," said Paul Armentano, deputy director 
of NORML - the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana 
Laws. "We're not having a public outcry saying we need a serious 
crackdown for antihistamine and penicillin."

Kerlikowske, a former Seattle police chief, called advocates' 
assertion that medical marijuana patients are unfairly affected by 
impaired-driving laws "a bit of a red herring."

"It's pretty obvious you're getting stopped for a reason - bad 
driving," he said. "In the real world, those arguments go up in smoke."

California law

California's law forces prosecutors seeking a DUI conviction for 
marijuana to prove that a driver was impaired because of ingesting 
the drug, not just that a driver took it.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's 2007 National 
Roadside Survey of nearly 10,000 drivers nationwide found 11.3 
percent tested positive for illegal drugs. The most popular: 
marijuana, at 8.6 percent.

A similar survey of 1,300 California drivers pulled over last year on 
Friday and Saturday nights found that more tested positive for drugs 
than for alcohol, and that the most prevalent drug detected was marijuana.

The public campaign against drunken driving has succeeded in reducing 
alcohol-related accidents. In turn, the reduction is "revealing the 
previously obscured and now growing problem of drug-impaired 
driving," said Chris Cochran, spokesman for the California Office of 
Traffic Safety, which conducted the survey.

Research into driving and drugs is continuing, but "the problem is 
(drugs) are causing tragedies on our roadways today," Cochran said.

Although California's legal standard is not as draconian as those of 
the 14 "zero tolerance" states, medical marijuana advocates see a 
danger in hypedup law-enforcement concern over drugged driving.

Law enforcement is "criminalizing thousands of medical marijuana 
patients unnecessarily," said Kris Hermes, spokesman for Americans 
for Safe Access in Oakland. "For the most part, they're not behaving 
any differently than any other driver."

Residual traces

Hermes says his organization has no problem with police pulling over 
impaired drivers. But it worries that medical marijuana patients who 
commit minor traffic infractions, such as not using a turn signal or 
failing to wear a seat belt, could end up facing DUI charges if they 
have residual traces of THC in their systems.

"Marijuana has been in use for decades without significant risk on 
the roads," Hermes said. "We don't need to suddenly protect the 
public from a problem that doesn't exist."

Some academic studies have concluded there is clear evidence of a 
link between marijuana consumption and traffic accidents.

A study conducted last year at Dalhousie University Medical School in 
Canada found that those who drive within three hours of consuming 
cannabis are almost twice as likely to cause an accident as those who 
are drug-or alcohol-free.

However, a 2011 study by two researchers found a decrease in traffic 
deaths in states with medical marijuana laws. The researchers, Mark 
Anderson at Montana State University and Daniel Rees at the 
University of Colorado Denver, concluded that marijuana often is a 
substitute for alcohol and that users tend to consume it at home 
rather than driving to bars or restaurants.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom