Driving high is both illegal and dangerous but more than half of marijuana users think it is safe, according to research by Carrie Cuttler, assistant professor of psychology at Washington State University.
Cuttler and colleagues at the University of California and Bastyr University Research Institute conducted an anonymous survey of marijuana users from all 50 states to determine their beliefs about the safety of driving shortly after consuming some form of cannabis.
Slightly more than half of the survey’s nearly 2,000 respondents (52.4 percent) reported believing that driving under the influence of cannabis is safe.
Over half of those surveyed (52.1 percent) also admitted to driving within one hour of cannabis use.
“Driving while under the influence of cannabis does increase the risk of being in a car accident, especially when it is combined with alcohol,” Cuttler said. “As the trend towards the legalization of recreational cannabis continues across the country, we need to do a better job of communicating these risks without blowing them out of proportion. The scientific community also really needs to renew its efforts on developing reliable and accurate ways to detect acute cannabis intoxication because these currently don’t exist.”
In addition to surveying marijuana users from across the country about their feelings on driving under the influence of cannabis, the researchers surveyed marijuana users before and after the legalization of recreational cannabis in Washington State.