Researchers note that increase included men and women, and all age groups.
By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
(HealthDay
News) -- The legalization of marijuana is an idea that is gaining
momentum in the United States, but there may be a dark side to pot
becoming more commonplace, a new study suggests.
Fatal crashes
involving marijuana use tripled during the previous decade, fueling some
of the overall increase in drugged-driving traffic deaths, researchers
from
Columbia University's
Mailman School of Public Health report.
"Currently,
one of nine drivers involved in fatal crashes would test positive for
marijuana," said co-author Dr. Guohua Li, director of the Center for
Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at
Columbia.
"If this trend continues, in five or six years non-alcohol drugs will
overtake alcohol to become the most common substance involved in deaths
related to impaired driving."
The research team drew its
conclusions from crash statistics from six states that routinely perform
toxicology tests on drivers involved in fatal car wrecks -- California,
Hawaii, Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and West Virginia. The
statistics included more than 23,500 drivers who died within one hour of
a crash between 1999 and 2010.
Alcohol contributed to about the same percentage of traffic fatalities throughout the decade, about 40 percent, Li said.
But
drugs played an increasingly prevalent role in fatal crashes, the
researchers found. Drugged driving accounted for more than 28 percent of
traffic deaths in 2010, up from more than 16 percent in 1999.
Marijuana
proved to be the main drug involved in the increase, contributing to 12
percent of 2010 crashes compared with 4 percent in 1999.
The study authors also noted that the combined use of alcohol and marijuana dramatically increases a driver's risk of death.
"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 increases to 24
times that of a sober person."
The researchers found that the
increase in marijuana use occurred across all age groups and in both
sexes. Their findings were published online Jan. 29 in the
American Journal of Epidemiology.
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Impaired Driving: Get the Facts
Every day, almost 30 people in the United States die in motor
vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. This amounts to
one death every 48 minutes.
1 The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $51 billion.
2
Thankfully, there are effective measures that can help prevent injuries and deaths from alcohol-impaired driving.
How big is the problem?
- In 2010, 10,228 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving
crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (31%) of all traffic-related
deaths in the United States.1
- Of the 1,210 traffic deaths among children ages 0 to 14 years in 2010, 211 (17%) involved an alcohol-impaired driver.1
- Of the 211 child passengers ages 14 and younger who died in
alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2010, over half (131) were riding
in the vehicle with the alcohol-impaired driver.1
- In 2010, over 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics.3 That's one percent of the 112 million self-reported episodes of alcohol-impaired driving among U.S. adults each year.4
- Drugs other than alcohol (e.g., marijuana and cocaine) are
involved in about 18% of motor vehicle driver deaths. These other drugs
are often used in combination with alcohol.5
CDC Vital Signs: Drinking and Driving: A Threat to Everyone
US adults drank too much and got behind the wheel about 112
million times in 2010. Alcohol-impaired drivers* are involved in about 1
in 3 crash deaths, resulting in over 10,000 deaths in 2010.
*These drivers had blood alcohol
concentrations of at least 0.08%. This is the illegal blood alcohol
concentration level for adult drivers in the United States.
Who is most at risk?
- Young people:
- At all levels of blood alcohol concentration (BAC), the risk of
being involved in a crash is greater for young people than for older
people.6
- Among drivers with BAC levels of 0.08 % or higher involved in
fatal crashes in 2010, more than one out of every 3 were between 21
and 24 years of age (34%). The next two largest groups were ages 25 to
34 (30%) and 35 to 44 (25%).1
- Motorcyclists:
- Among motorcyclists killed in fatal crashes in 2010, 28% had BACs of 0.08% or greater. 1
- Nearly half of the alcohol-impaired motorcyclists killed each
year are age 40 or older, and motorcyclists ages 40-44 have the highest
percentage of deaths with BACs of 0.08% or greater (44%).7
- Drivers with prior driving while impaired (DWI) convictions:
- Drivers with a BAC of 0.08% or higher involved in fatal crashes
were four times more likely to have a prior conviction for DWI than
were drivers with no alcohol in their system? (8% and 2%,
respectively).1
A Closer Look
- Sobriety checkpoints: traffic stops where
law enforcement officers assess drivers’ level of alcohol
impairment. These checkpoints consistently reduce alcohol-related
crashes, typically by 9%.
- Ignition interlocks: devices that are
installed in the vehicles of people who have been convicted of
driving while impaired. They prevent operation of the vehicle by
anyone with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) above a specified
safe level (usually 0.02% – 0.04%). When installed, interlocks are
associated with about a 70% reduction in arrest rates for impaired
driving.
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