Alarming new research shows the number of crashes involving marijuana have gone up significantly since becoming legal in Washington State.
AAA conducted the study and says fatal crashes involving drivers who tested positing for pot actually doubled after the drug became legal in the state.
It found that between 2013 and 2014, the number of drivers involved in deadly crashes who used marijuana more than doubled, and one in six drivers involved in deadly crashes in 2014 had recently used marijuana.
But the AAA study also questions how we enforce drug impaired driving, saying there's no scientific evidence that everyone with a certain THC level is necessarily impaired, and that THC levels can quickly drop by the time someone has a blood sample withdrawn.
“This tells us that there is still a lot of research to be done on the effects of marijuana and drivers behind the wheel, and on how to properly enforce this,” said Matt Nasworthy, a spokesperson for AAA.
AAA is calling for more comprehensive enforcement, saying rather than relying on arbitrary legal limits, states should use a two-component system that requires a positive test for recent marijuana use, and most importantly, behavioral and physiological evidence of driver impairment.