Imagine if you had to tell a family that their child was never coming home again...because a driver had a few too many drinks and they were too lazy to get a taxi? How would you feel if it was your child? Your brother, your parent, your best friend? Now imagine that you're the one who had a few drinks and thought...Home isn't too far. I'll make it without getting busted. While on the back streets worrying if the booze bus will catch you, you hit someone. How do you live with that for the rest of your life?Finding: Cannabis impaired driving threatens public safety. States have implemented a variety of laws to address this issue. However, a universal standard to detect cannabis impaired driving does not exist, largely because THC presence in the bloodstream, alone, does not indicate impairment. Given the difficulties and expense involved in establishing cannabis or other drug related impairment, 47 out of 50 states do not differentiate between alcohol and other drugs in such cases or stack the charges. This serves as a deterrent for law enforcement to test for cannabis impairment specifically, which may skew available data on the prevalence of cannabis impaired driving. To augment the shortcomings related to testing, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) supports research related to reliable roadside tests and supports training for law enforcement through the Drug 6 Recognition Expert (DRE) and Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) programs. Yet, the DRE program only trains just over one percent of law enforcement officials nationwide, and the ARIDE program only trains approximately eight percent.vi, vii
Recommendation: The Caucus strongly urges the federal government to accelerate research regarding the detection of cannabis impaired driving, including the development of standardized field testing. Moreover, given their success, but limited reach, the Caucus urges NHTSA to increase funding for the DRE and ARIDE programs so that the maximum number of law enforcement and other personnel can be trained on how best to detect cannabis impaired driving. The Caucus further urges Congress to increase federal funding for state forensic and toxicology labs to ensure that testing for cannabis impaired driving is expanded and required, so that available data more accurately reflects the scope of the problem, and to expand innovative and effective programs, such as DUI/DWI courts.
Page 5 US: Cannabis Policy Report – 02 March 2021 Final.pdf (senate.gov)
Also see,
- Legalisation of cannabis may be associated with increase in fatal car crashes | The Independent
- Colorado Impaired Driving Data taken from THE LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA IN COLORADO: THE IMPACT Volume 7 September 2020 www.RMHIDTA.org
