Shaun Boyd, investigative journalist for the CBS TV station in Denver ran a news story featuring Ed Wood of DUID Victim Voices January 29, 2021. She was prompted to do this after reading about Colorado Drugged Driving Data in our January 11th post.
Colorado drugged driving data
Colorado has a drugged driving problem.
Lukas Myers knows this. The photo shows him being extracted from a car when he was 12 years old after a crash caused by a marijuana-impaired driver. Most bones in both of Lukas’s legs were broken as well as both wrists.
For some, stories like this are convincing. Others need data. So here is a summary of relevant data from 11 sources.
- Percent of drivers who admit driving
CDC guidance: THC and crash risk
Those who cling to the myth that THC’s role in traffic safety is unclear were buoyed by release in 2017 of guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which stated, “…it is unclear whether marijuana use actually increases the risk of car crashes.”
https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/pdf/marijuana-driving-508.pdf
DUID Victim Voices supplied the following analysis to the CDC in December 2020, requesting that the guidance be corrected. Thankfully, the CDC subsequently released a correction. The … READ MORE
Cannabis vs. Marijuana
Some in the marijuana lobby have pushed for adoption of the word “cannabis” rather than “marijuana” on the grounds that the word marijuana is pejorative or racist. Politicians have been early adopters of this to avoid being labeled a racist. The infamous MORE Act passed by the Democrats in the House of Representatives Dec 4 2020 mandated that cannabis be used in all US laws and regulations, replacing either marijuana or marihuana. At its December … READ MORE
Choose your favorite lie
The House of Representatives passed the MORE Act December 4, 2020. Properly characterized as a marijuana legalization act by USA Today, Bloomberg, Yahoo and many others, CNN called it a marijuana decriminalization act in deference to its sponsors Kamala Harris and Jerry Nadler. NBC went further, calling it a cannabis decriminalization act, since the act requires us to call marijuana by its currently politically correct name, cannabis.
Republican sponsor Matt Graetz of Florida commented, ““The … READ MORE
Wanted: imaginative thinking
Rosekind, Ehsani and Michael published a June 2020 Commentary in JAMA Internal Medicine calling for more data to inform policies needed to reduce impaired driving fatalities. Although we are a strong proponent of more data for that purpose, we took issue with two of the authors’ specific recommendations:
- More crash risk studies like the NHTSA-sponsored Virginia Beach study, and
- Improved FARS data.
JAMA Internal Medicine published our disagreements and the authors’ response Nov. 16, 2020:… READ MORE
Arizona Republic tests the limit of the First Amendment
October 4, 2020 the Arizona Republic’s editorial board endorsed that state’s Proposition 207 to legalize, commercialize and tax recreational marijuana sales. Anyone has the right to disagree with our position that Proposition 207 should be defeated, but when they misrepresent the facts to support their position, we should respond.
October 21, the newspaper published an online story, “Where recreational marijuana is legal, data show minimal impacts on teen use and traffic deaths.” The next day, … READ MORE
Stoned driving more common than drunk driving
Colorado authorized the use of marijuana tax dollars to temporarily fund a program at the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s Forensic Toxicology laboratory, enabling them to test all DUI toxicology samples for drugs as well as alcohol. The laboratory issued summary results June 30, 2020 after completing the first year of this program. CBI performs about half of all the DUI lab tests in the state.
For the last year, stoned driving topped drunk driving, something … READ MORE
Not finding something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist
A favorite citation used by the marijuana lobby to promote the idea that marijuana doesn’t impair driving is one published in 2015 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (www.nhtsa.gov/behavioral-research/drug-and-alcohol-crash-risk-study). And when the study is cited, the results are usually badly misquoted.
Los Angeles Times: “Good news (?): marijuana doesn’t increase the likelihood of car crashes.”
USA Today: “New study shows no link between marijuana use and car accidents.”
Reason: “Landmark study finds marijuana … READ MORE
Deceptive statistical analysis
Two articles on the effect of recreational marijuana commercialization on traffic fatalities reached opposite conclusions in the June 22nd 2020 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine. Readers should understand the effect of study design differences before concluding that marijuana can be commercialized without an increase in traffic fatalities.
Kamer (doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.1769) reported that traffic fatalities increased in both Colorado and Washington after commercializing recreational marijuana. But Santaella-Tenorio (doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.1757) found traffic fatality increased in Colorado but not in … READ MORE
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