The recent trend toward greenlighting the use of marijuana is mystifying on myriad levels. Why ban cigarette smoke in restaurants but let outdoor dining be spoiled by marijuana smoke? Why accept a ubiquitous public stench that rivals the effects of building a sewage treatment plant or a pulp mill in the middle of a city? Yet perhaps the single most mystifying aspect of the recent acceptance of marijuana use has been the clash between such acceptance and longstanding concerns about impaired driving.
Simply put, increased marijuana use has led to significantly more Americans being killed on our nation’s roads — as people are not only driving while stoned but driving while stoned and drunk. As we approach the week of July 4, when deaths from impaired driving tend to peak, Americans might want to ask themselves whether this is a price worth paying and what they’re getting in return.
A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health — and conducted by scholars at Boston Medical Center, Boston University, and the University of Victoria — found that the percentage of car crash deaths in America that involved marijuana has skyrocketed since 2000. The percentage of car crash deaths involving cannabis alone rose from 4.2 percent in 2000 to 11.2 percent in 2018. Over that same span, the percentage of car crash deaths involving cannabis and alcohol together rose from 4.8 to 10.3 percent. So the total percentage of car crash deaths involving cannabis, either with or without alcohol, rose from 9.0 percent in 2000 to 21.5 percent in 2018 — to
