Being stoned while driving can double risk of crash: study

By

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – With BC being the best place to get bud, you may know someone who gets high then takes their keys and gets into a car. But there’s new Canadian research that shows driving under the influence of pot doubles your risk of a serious or deadly car crash versus driving while sober.

A study from Dalhousie University says there’s a 92 per cent increased risk of a fatal crash when you’re high and behind the wheel. We asked people in Vancouver if they do it.

One man says he used to get stoned as a teenager then drive, but he doesn’t take the risk anymore. “Pot is more potent now, and more deadly than alcohol.”

“You can’t even concentrate, you can’t hold a thought, your judgment is far more impeded, your reaction time is a lot slower. You’re a zombie behind the wheel,” he explains.
    
Another man agrees and says the study doesn’t surprise him. Whenever his friends get stoned and drive, he’s never in the car.

“I personally don’t think you should do anything that’s going to impair [you] when you’re driving.  I don’t think it’s smart,” he tells us.

Only a few people we spoke to have a more relaxed view.

One woman doesn’t think it’s as bad as being drunk while on the road. “I think that smoking marijuana impairs you in a different way than drinking alcohol. I don’t think it would be ‘doubly’ as dangerous.”

The study found people confessing to driving within an hour of using pot is growing, especially among teenagers.

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today