Drugs & Driving More Fatal Than Drunk Driving In California (VIDEO)

Friends don't let friends drive… drugged.

While drunk driving has been on the decline, drug-impaired driving has increased over at least the past four years, according to figures released Tuesday by the California Office of Traffic Safety.

Three out of every 10 people killed on California roads in 2010 tested positive for legal and/or illegal drugs, according to the news release.

Drivers high on prescription drugs, marijuana or other drugs often go under-reported because drug testing is expensive and there is no established legal limit.

Chris Cochran, spokesman for the Office of Traffic Safety, said, “We’re sort of where we were with drunk driving in 1950. We’re just getting a handle on it,” the Los Angeles Times reports. Cochran also told the Times that he thinks that increases in legal marijuana and prescription drug use are likely contributing to the problem.

In response to the issue, the Office of Traffic Safety and the California Highway Patrol have trained over 700 police officers in the past five months to detect and apprehend drug-impaired drivers. Police departments throughout the state have also sent officers to advanced drug recognition program to become Drug Recognition Experts, the news release explains.

The problem remains a difficult one to remedy, however, without a legal toxication standard. While some have called for a national legal marijuana toxication limit, there is disagreement about how much pot it takes to impair a driver, as FOX reported in the video below. Others say that an officer's case-by-case judgment is better than a one-size-fits-all legal limit.

Comments

[OhioYippieHippie]

09:06 AM on 03/13/2012

more fox news lies

[left out]

03:03 PM on 03/08/2012

How about we punish drivers for speed, carelessness, recklessness, and failing to obey posted laws. Keep crazy aggressive drivers off the road, if they got that way naturally, or not.

[George Daly]

08:03 PM on 03/07/2012

This article is bogus, esp when shown that medical marijuana states have a marked decrease of driving fatalities. read it yourself: http://healthland.time.com/2011/12/02/why-medical-marijuana-laws-reduce-traffic-deaths/

[Tomaniac]

10:52 PM on 03/03/2012

Legal Rx drug abuse in the country is at an all time high and these drugs have much worse side effects than cannabis. Listen to any commercial on TV about the warnings on most and you have to wonder who would take any of this stuff.

I drove to work one day after taking a popular OTC antihistamine and I couldn't keep my eyes open. I was lucky I wasn't in a traffic accident and have never repeated it, but had I been, any drug test would have shown cannabis in my system from use many days before and this would have gotten blamed instead of the antihistamine, so I call BS on this article.

[tbishop930]

03:54 PM on 03/03/2012

HOLD IT. FAUX News did this piece. What on earth would make you think that this is anywhere close to reality. Those CLOWNS CAN'T EVEN TELLYOU CORRECT TIME OF DAY! Remember 1 thing...FOX LIES!!!

[Pata Locs]

12:29 PM on 03/02/2012

This article is completely misleading, as example, using drug testing to determine whether the driver was under the influence is a flawed meathod. Marijuana is detectable in your system up to 30 days, I offer this timetable of how long each drug stays in your system while most only offer a 1-3 hour "high"(link below). I find it saddening a news article would use suggestion and false information to support an anti-marijuana agenda.

h**p://www.passyourdrugtest.com/timetable.htm (Replace the ** with tt)

[flamjoe]

07:42 PM on 03/01/2012

Hey, how about a report on the amount of meth, heroin and coke that pours across our southern border daily while the DEA is running around shutting down legal dispenseries

[sixtoes]

01:24 AM on 03/02/2012

Yeah, I know. It's like Hoover going after communists, while the mafia was allowed to run rampant.

[Mr Bobo]

02:48 PM on 03/02/2012

Supposedly, here in LA, we have about 130ish legal ones and several hundred not-so-legal ones. From what I understand by my interpretation of the law, they are supposed to be 'NON-PROFIT COLLECTIVES". Not quite sure how many virtuous shops are operating within those parameters and how many are just out to score a buck.

[flamjoe]

07:05 PM on 03/02/2012

Oh, don't get me wrong. If they are not keeping everything above board, they should be shut down. The Marin County store that was closed, as far as I know, has never been shady in any way.

[zvibenyosef2030]

06:50 PM on 03/01/2012

"Three out of every 10 people killed on California roads in 2010 tested positive for legal and/or illegal drugs, according to the news release"

The press release cited in this article mentions "legal and illegal drugs" which covers a great many different substances. Then without discussing how many of these cases are actually related to marijuana. One study I saw, which compared the effect of alcohol and marijuana on driving, concluded that drivers under the influence of marijuana, are more cautious than normal, and tend to drive more slowly. Drivers under the influence of alcohol are overconfident and drive more recklessly.

[FuzzyBongo]

06:49 PM on 03/01/2012

Ahh, this is part of the crafty plan to ensure the illegality of cannabis. I love how they say "prescription drugs and marijuana" which enables us not to have any idea how much is which. Also, what are these prescription drugs? I'm certain there are many that would be quite daunting to drive under the influence of. With marijuana, legitimate studies don't show a large impairment. Of course, one could take or smoke so much that it would be highly impairing. However, I read that cellphones and make up application create a far larger impairment in driving ability...

But, then, the goal is not safe roads, but full jails, good jobs for drug law enforcement and a way to keep people under wraps. No legal intoxicants unless they have to be brewed by big corporations or big pharma.

[fumes]

01:58 PM on 03/01/2012

"I have on a few occasions been forced to drive in heavy traffic when high. I’ve negotiated it with no difficulty at all, though I did have some thoughts about the marvelous cherry-red color of traffic lights." ~Carl Sagan
http://www.veryimportantpotheads.com/

[sixtoes]

01:25 AM on 03/02/2012

Carl was dropping acid, not smoking pot.

[fumes]

09:06 AM on 03/02/2012

"I am convinced that there are genuine and valid levels of perception available with cannabis (and probably with other drugs) which are, through the defects of our society and our educational system, unavailable to us without such drugs." ~ Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan (1934-1996) was a lifelong user of marijuana.

Under the pseudonym "Mr. X," he contributed an essay about smoking cannabis to Dr. Lester Grinspoon's 1971 book Marihuana Reconsidered. After the famous astronomer's death, his friend Dr. Grinspoon revealed this information to Sagan's biographer, Keay Davidson.

The publishing of Davidon's biography, Carl Sagan: A Life in 1999 brought attention to Sagan's cannabis use and advocacy.

http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2011/06/cannabis_quote_of_the_day_carl_sagan.php

[fumes]

01:54 PM on 03/01/2012

''The problem remains a difficult one to remedy, however, without a legal toxication standard. While some have called for a national legal marijuana toxication limit, there is disagreement about how much pot it takes to impair a driver..''
--------------------
no problem!

(pot is NON-toxic):

(CNN) -- Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders told CNN Sunday she supports legalizing marijuana. "What I think is horrible about all of this, is that we criminalize young people. And we use so many of our excellent resources ... for things that aren't really causing any problems," said Elders. "It's not a toxic substance."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/10/18/former.surgeon.general.marijuana/index.html?hpt=T2

[mikey09]

09:58 AM on 03/01/2012

I suppose the only way to end this debate is to test every driver who has an accident and compile the information of drug and alcohol use, then we can have an honest assessment of what drugs are being abused while driving. Its probably going to happen this way anyway, with so many now driving on their lortab scripts etc insurance will want a way out of total liability.

[Nicon]

08:47 AM on 03/01/2012

The problem is not MARIJUANA as the headline might suggest. Its the ALL OTHER DRUGS giving us that night big number to talk about.

Stop the propaganda, its a Marijuana filled election, and this time the reality might just win over the fear and panic.

[WiscFighter]

12:13 PM on 03/01/2012

They point fingers at MJ users and generalize them in a way that if each person drives while high that they will get into an accident somehow. I say its BS cause the ppl that would get into accidents are those that have had other prescription drugs at the same time. MJ alone, is NOT the one at fault. Plus another thing I wonder is how they know exactly that a driver is high on MJ? I mean at that moment, because their tests only show recent use, which can be days or weeks. They even mentioned in the video that they cant fully calculate how much THC is in a person's system at that given time

[Mr Bobo]

02:52 PM on 03/02/2012

The article and headline specifies legal and non-legal drugs. The idea being to separate them from those attributed to alcohol. No big conspiracy here.

[sixtoes]

06:12 AM on 03/01/2012

I strongly disagree with the last sentence "....an officer's case-by-case judgment is better than a one-size-fits-all legal limit."

There is too much potential for abuse by pri_ck cops on a power trip who do not like the attitude/race/gender/hair style/bumper sticker of a person they've come into contact with.

[coblstone]

01:09 AM on 03/01/2012

texting is the real drug

[RobietheCat]

01:22 AM on 03/01/2012

No doubt:

From Jonathan Turley's site:

Reading On The Run: Woman Photographed Reading Nook and Drinking Coffee While Speeding Down Highway (at 50 mph)

"I was on CNN this morning discussing the comments of the Pennsylvania judge on the assaulting of an atheist. On the way back, the CNN driver took I-66 and we passed this scene of a woman drinking coffee and reading her Nook . . . while moving over fifty miles an hour during rush hour.

We could not believe our eyes so the driver pulled along side while I took a couple of pictures. Even when we passed an accident with a trooper at the scene, the woman barely looked up from her electronic book. This went on for thirty minutes as we drove along on 66. It was truly unbelievable, particularly since traffic would stop and then speed up with the rush hour traffic. We were amazed that she did not hit anyone because she barely glanced up and seemed totally engrossed in the book. Unfortunately, traveling down a highway, my cellphone did not allow for a particularly good picture. At one point, she briefly took her hand off the wheel to both drink and read. "

link: http://jonathanturley.org/2012/02/27/reading-on-the-run-woman-photographed-reading-nook-and-drinking-coffee-while-speeding-down-highway/

[sixtoes]

06:14 AM on 03/01/2012

That's terrible! I won't even risk reading a short text message while I'm driving.