Posted on 02/05/2014 2:31:33 PM PST by Responsibility2nd
SEATTLE (CBS Seattle) – According to a recent study, fatal car crashes involving pot use have tripled in the U.S.
“Currently, one of nine drivers involved in fatal crashes would test positive for marijuana,” Dr. Guohua Li, director of the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia, and co-author of the study told HealthDay News.
Researchers from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health gathered data from six states – California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and West Virginia – that perform toxicology tests on drivers involved in fatal car accidents. This data included over 23,500 drivers that died within one hour of a crash between 1999 and 2010.
Li reported in the study that alcohol contributed to about 40 percent of traffic fatalities throughout the decade.
The researchers found that drugs played an increasing role in fatal traffic accidents. Drugged driving accounted for more than 28 percent of traffic deaths in 2010, which is 16 percent more than it was in 1999. The researchers also found that marijuana was the main drug involved in the increase. It contributed to 12 percent of fatal crashes, compared to only 4 percent in 1999.
“If a driver is under the influence of alcohol, their risk of a fatal crash is 13 times higher than the risk of the driver who is not under the influence of alcohol,” Li said. “But if the driver is under the influence of both alcohol and marijuana, their risk increased to 24 times that of a sober person.”
Researchers found that the increase in marijuana use occurred across all ages for males and females.
Jonathan Adkins, deputy executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, told HealthDay News that marijuana impairs driving in much the same way that alcohol does.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattle.cbslocal.com ...
Waaaaaaaahooooooooo!!! Let’s all go crazy and just smoke dope like mad, irresponsible fools!!! Waaaaaaaahoooooooo!!! (just like Slim Pickens ridin that nuke down the chute in Dr. Strangelove)
Usually too stoned to get off the couch.
But you have to admit, at least they were mellow.
You forgot the ever present urge for munchies and a local quickie mart.
Well played!
Yeah, DUH!
Pizza delivery.
See # 6.
McMuffins.
Uh oh. This is gonna start some s#!+.
:-X
“Correlation is not causation.” That’s right. As the old saying goes, Drunk Drivers Kill People; High People Just Miss Their Exits. These so called “Studies” can be easily manipulated to obtain the desired results. This particular study doesn’t ring true. Personally,I would be more concerned with the millions of people loaded up on legal psychotropic medications than a person who has used marijuana.
When will MAPS (Mothers Against Pot Smokers) speak out? Are they not MADD enough?
Facts? We don’t need no steenking facts!
MAPS? That’s all we need. The insufferable MADD was bad enough. If it was up to MADD anyone suspected of DUI would be immediately executed by the roadside. No need of a trial or due process.
Ever seen a government funded study not find a problem that needs to be solved?
But they don’t deliver Funions and Hoo-hoos. :o)
Compare the trend in accident rates, between states with legal marihuana vs. those that still have prohibition.
So the Seahawk fans are also switching from “recreational” pot to “medical” marijuana like the Bronco fans? Thanks Mr. Leno! That was funny stuff. LOL!
Hmmmmmm, need to add those to the menu!
Excellent link PGalt. : ) smile back to ya!
Speaking of MADD, if a legally sober driver is involved in a traffic accident in which another legally sober person is killed, and the person killed happened to drink one beer 30 minutes prior to the accident, the NHTSA will classify that fatality as alcohol-related, and MADD will use that particular fatality to bolster its numbers in an effort to persuade the legislature to enact tougher laws to curb drunk driving.
That is just one of the dishonest means MADD uses to manipulate and falsify statistics. Sounds a lot like the way this study was done.
MADD, in pursuit of nationwide sobriety checkpoints, is partly responsible for the asterisk that was assigned to our Constitutions Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans from unreasonable search and seizure.
I’m fed up with losing my hard fought for and hard won constitutional rights because of some “do-gooders” pet agenda.
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