The District of Columbia leads the states in percentage of drivers under the influence of illegal drugs and ranks in the top 10 for people who drink and drive, according to a federal report.
Seven percent of D.C. drivers admitted to getting behind the wheel after taking illicit drugs within the past year; one in five said they consumed alcohol and drove, according a first-of-its kind national report released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Virginia ranked at the national average for percentage of drivers under the influence at 4.7 percent, and Maryland was below the average.
Kurt Gregory Erickson, of the Washington Regional Alcohol Program, said he was disheartened because the report comes on the heels of a study that showed the District was making progress, showing the largest drop in DUI fatalities in the nation.
“The District has always [borne] an undue burden as the recreational playground for people who go back to the suburbs,” Erickson said.
Driving under the influence is one of the leading causes of preventabledeath by injury in the U.S., according to the study.
John Townsend, a spokesman for AAA, said the use of drugs while driving is a “tremendous problem and an underestimated problem.”
“What we’re seeing is only the tip of the iceberg, because the people who use these drugs think can hide it,” Townsend said. “It’s a problem that needs closer scrutiny.”
The study results are similar to other research, including a New England Journal of Medicine report that found that of drivers pulled over for reckless driving who had not consumed alcohol, 45 percent had used marijuana and 25 percent had cocaine in their system, Townsend said.
