Michigan is considering legalizing the recreational use of marijuana in next month’s election. Ross Jones of Detroit’s ABC affiliate WXYZ reported on his interviews of a number of Colorado leaders this week, asking if Colorado was less safe since legalizing marijuana in Colorado. I was one of his interviewees.
Much of his reporting focused on the issue of marijuana-impaired driving. I pointed out to him that marijuana-impaired driving and all drug-impaired driving is a significant problem everywhere, regardless of whether or not marijuana is legalized for either medicinal or recreational use.
Because automobile travel is so safe (1.18 deaths per 100 million miles driven) an average person would be involved in a fatal collision perhaps every 85 lifetimes. So a drunk driver who may be ten times more likely to cause a fatal crash will still usually get away with driving drunk. Since stoned driving is safer than drunk driving, it’s no wonder that so many people are willing to believe they are a safe driver after using marijuana. They aren’t.
The full report can be seen here.