Trouble Ahead: A Third Of Teens Think It’s Legal To Drive Under The Influence Of Marijuana
By Cheryl and Christopher Jensen , CONTRIBUTOR
October 13, 2017
A third of teens in a new survey think it’s legal to drive under the influence of marijuana in states where recreational use by adults is legal. What could go wrong?
Plenty.
Although it’s a small study, it poses a big concern that misperceptions among teens about the dangers of driving under the influence of marijuana could put their lives and the lives of everyone else on the road in jeopardy. And it isn’t just teens who were wrong about this; 27% of parents surveyed think so, too.
The study, which surveyed 2,800 teens from high schools across the country and 1,000 parents of licensed teenage drivers, was commissioned by Liberty Mutual Insurance and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions).
“It was eye-opening,” said Mike Sample, lead driving safety expert & technical consultant at Liberty Mutual. “I think we spend so much time in our culture discussing the negative impacts of alcohol use that the teens aren’t hearing enough of the messaging from their parents about the perils of any type of impaired driving.”
The study does show sharp differences on the part of both teens and parents between their attitudes on driving under the influence of marijuana and driving under the influence of alcohol.
They just don’t seem to take the significant negative effects that marijuana can have on motor coordination, judgment and reaction time as seriously as they do with alcohol.
· 73% of teens said driving under the influence of marijuana makes someone a worse driver, yet 88% recognized that drinking and driving makes someone a worse driver.
· 80% of parents said driving under the influence of marijuana makes someone a worse driver, yet 93% said the same of alcohol.
· 68% of teens said driving under the influence of marijuana is dangerous, yet 88% said the same of alcohol.
· 76% of parents said driving under the influence of marijuana is dangerous, yet 93% said the same of alcohol.
“We live in a world where the DUI messages about alcohol are very loud and clear in our society,” Sample said. This
study presents a good opportunity to start sending out a broader message, he said. “Driving under the influence is driving under the influence no matter what the substance.”
Another study done in 2016 by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (I.I.H.S.) showed a similar disparity in attitudes toward marijuana and alcohol.
It found that, nationally, driving after using marijuana wasn’t perceived as negatively as driving after consuming alcohol, which the majority of respondents viewed as a problem in their communities. Less than half of drivers surveyed considered marijuana’s effects on driving to be about the same as alcohol’s.
“The message that alcohol and driving is a dangerous combination is well-entrenched, but marijuana isn’t viewed quite as negatively,” wrote Angela Eichelberger, a senior research scientist at the I.I.H.S. and the study’s author in an email.
She also mentioned a University of Texas study published earlier this year, which found an increase in fatal crashes in Colorado and Washington after the legalization of recreational use, although the authors concluded that the increase wasn’t statistically significant. Still, these two studies point to an increased crash risk with legalized marijuana, she wrote.
Safety organizations have begun to study marijuana and its effects on crashes, as more states have legalized its recreational use and as traffic deaths have started to rise.
The federal government, for example, just announced that traffic deaths in 2016 increased 5.6% over 2015. This means 37,461 people died on our roadways in 2016, which is 1,976 more than died in 2015. Deaths also rose in 2015.
The Governors Highway Safety Association published a comprehensive report in April about drug use on our nation’s roadways.
When I wrote about that report for Forbes, its author, Dr. Jim Hedlund, said that marijuana was the drug that showed up the most of any drug in the system of drivers who died in crashes.
“No other specific drug shows up in amounts greater than 10%,” he said. Marijuana, however, accounted for more than one-third (35.6%) of the drugs found in testing.
In June, another study done by the research arm of the I.I.H.S. linked legalizing recreational marijuana to an increase in motor vehicle crashes. The study found that insurance claim rates under collision coverage went up about 3 percent overall after recreational marijuana sales started in Colorado, Oregon and Washington.
At that time an I.I.H.S. statement noted that worry about legalizing marijuana increasing crash rates isn’t misplaced and that the findings should give other states eyeing legalization pause.
There is good news and bad news for parents in this current study.
The study found that where marijuana has been legalized recreationally, a conversation between parents and teens about driving under the influence of marijuana is having an impact on a teen’s views of risk.
Where this conversation has taken place between parents and teens, 80% of teens think smoking marijuana makes someone a worse driver; where it hasn’t taken place, only 72% of teens think so. And where parents have had this conversation, 75% of teens think this practice is dangerous; where it hasn’t taken place, only 71% of teens think it’s dangerous.
However, if parents need more proof that their teens may not be listening, there is this finding: While the majority of parents (78%) say they are talking to teens about the dangers of smoking marijuana and driving, only 53% of teens recall having these conversations with their parents.
Since talking about these risks does seem to make a difference, Sample said that reinforcing the message by formalizing the discussion and putting it in writing can help. He mentioned that Liberty Mutual’s Teen Driving Contract, which can serve as a guide.
Setting clear rules and expectations is important. These are young adults and they need to know the rules and consequences if they don’t play by them, he said.
And a rule is: There is absolutely no driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.