For many of us, this Labor Day weekend will be spent with family and friends at picnics and barbecues, in backyards and on beaches. But for some, the long drives represent a grisly reminder of loss.
These are the people like Corinne Gasper. Her daughter, Jennifer, was on the way to work when she was hit by another driver who ran a red light, hitting her at more than 80 miles an hour. He was sent to prison for only 17 months.
Or Darryl Rogers, whose son, Chase, died when the car in which he was a passenger crashed into the woods in Cary, North Carolina. It was later discovered that the person behind the wheel at the time had marijuana in her system.
Today’s marijuana isn’t your Woodstock weed. Potency can reach up to 99.9 percent, more than 20 times the strength of marijuana from the 1970s.
Lost in the rush to legalize this potent plant is the impact it could have on roadway deaths. According to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, marijuana-impaired driving fatalities more than doubled in Washington State after they legalized the drug.
Many who admit to driving while high think marijuana somehow helps them drive better. Science proves otherwise. THC, the psychoactive active compound in marijuana, has been found in well-designed studies to at least double one’s risk of a car crash.
In Colorado, the first state to legalize marijuana, the number of drivers under the influence of pot involved in fatal crashes increased 88 percent since legalization. Also, collision claims in Colorado are 14 percent higher than in nearby states that have not legalized pot.
It is clear there is a lack of education and understanding of marijuana’s harms.
This desert of public education and awareness is creating a profit windfall for Big Marijuana. Much like its predecessor, Big Tobacco, today’s marijuana industry is banking on people’s ignorance in order to sell a product that is harmful both to them and to others.
This industry is deceptively offering its product in gummies, candies, and sodas — all of them marketed for heavy consumption. The old Woodstock joints have been replaced by high potency edibles and extracts. People are paying with their lives.
There are no simple solutions to stopping drugged driving. Unlike alcohol, no breathalyzer test can determine impairment for marijuana. Marijuana stays in your system longer than alcohol, even though it is a myth that most people will test positive if they used 30 days prior. Certain field sobriety tests must be combined with oral fluid or blood tests that can detect the active presence of drugs like marijuana. Getting a drugged driving conviction in court now is as hard as it used to be 30 years ago for drunk driving.
This lack of technology is translating into more victims. Research has shown that marijuana can still impair you after you feel your high has worn off; and edibles and new forms of ingestion, many with delayed effects, complicate the role of pot and driving when behind the wheel.
Despite these facts, proponents of legalization continue to fast track this drug, and to market it to children and minorities in much the same way big tobacco marketed itself 30 or more years ago.
While some in our country are rushing at full speed toward the massive social experiment of pot commercialization, we need to slow down and consider the price that others like Corinne Gasper and Darryl Rogers have paid.
Dr. Kevin A. Sabet is a former drug advisor to three U.S. presidents and currently serves as the founder and president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
