Millions of Americans get behind the wheel while high from smoking marijuana, a study released on Wednesday said.
An estimated 14.8 million Americans said they’ve driven while high at least once in the past month and nearly 70 percent believe they won’t get busted by cops, according to the American Automobile Association.
“It’s terrifying,” said Helen Witty, the national president for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. “Impairment is impairment. We should be terrified, as law abiding citizens, that there are so many people out on the road driving impaired on anything. Drive when [you] are sober – otherwise, don’t drive.”
Drunk driving has declined by 50 percent since MADD was founded in 1980, but it’s up 9% since 2014. Traffic fatalities and injuries caused by drunk drivers have also decreased since their founding.
However, millions of drivers are toking weed instead and seven percent of survey respondents said they had no problem driving after smoking marijuana. In comparison, just 1.6-percent said they were comfortable driving while drinking alcohol.
Police departments across the country are training more and more cops to identify drugged drivers, Witty said, but the methods are far from refined.
“The science is emerging still on a standard of impairment,” she said. “I’m so sorry that all this has been legalized before the science is there.”