Epidemic of 'stoned driving' puts a dangerous new wrinkle in marijuana debate

By Kristen Wyatt
Associated Press

DENVER — Angeline Chilton says she can't drive unless she smokes pot.

The suburban Denver woman uses medical marijuana to ease multiple sclerosis symptoms and says she'd never get behind the wheel right after smoking. But her case underscores a problem that no one's sure how to solve: How do you tell if someone is too stoned to drive?

Expert Analysis Legalizing marijuana: Police officers speak out By Doug Wyllie, PoliceOne Editor in Chief Want to start a fight on PoliceOne? Do an article on any one of these three topics: gun control, police unions, or the legalization of marijuana. Generally speaking, I do my best to stay away from those third-rail issues, but sometimes my responsibility to report the trends affecting LEOs forces me to suck it up and get zapped. Let me be clear in one thing right up front. I will not pretend to present an “answer” to this question — rather, I hope this to be an open forum in which everyone on PoliceOne can add their voice to the discussion. Let’s get started, shall we? A couple of months ago, I was sent an interesting email from a PoliceOne Member I’d never before had contact with — he said that there was an issue brewing related to cops being reprimanded and/or fired for voicing their opinion that pot could be legalized, regulated, and taxed with greater efficacy than the present enforcement of its legal prohibition. Further, he said that this was not limited to public commentary, but was happening for expression of opinion from one officer to another in private company. Now, I can fully appreciate the notion that a cop can be reprimanded and/or fired for misrepresenting the uniform during attendance at an off-duty event that besmirches his or her agency in some way. I can equally understand that “free speech” doesn’t extend to making a wide variety of ill-advised “comments” on Facebook and other social networking sites. If what you say in public reflects badly on the PD, well, the PD can quite justly penalize you for it — that’s just a fact. But being canned for voicing an opinion in a one-on-one, cop-to-cop context? I’m pretty much duty-bound to look into that sort of thing. So, I posted a poll on the homepage, and reached out to a couple of sources I’d filed away in my dusty old rolodex — the following column is a collection of responses from that effort, supplemented by some additional stuff I’ve collected from around the Internet. Continue reading Legalizing marijuana: Police officers speak out

Angeline Chilton is a suburban Denver woman with multiple sclerosis who smokes pot twice a day to ease tremors. Holding her pipe as she sits on the front porch of her home in Lakewood (Colo.), Chilton insists that she never drives high, but she fears that officials will rush to set an unproven blood-level standard that would put her at risk of breaking the law. In Colorado and Washington, the debate over how to tell whether a driver is high is more than academic. The states are struggling to come up with a blood-level standard for marijuana that would be analogous to the blood-alcohol standard used to decide who's driving drunk. (AP Photo)

Related Feature: Why does the debate continue over marijuana legalization? This is a highly debated topic, and it has even infiltrated the law enforcement community, and even some cops are speaking out in favor of legalization. Related content sponsored by:

States that allow medical marijuana have grappled with determining impairment levels for years. And voters in Colorado and Washington state will decide this fall whether to legalize the drug for recreational use, bringing a new urgency to the issue.

A Denver marijuana advocate says officials are scrambling for limits in part because more drivers acknowledge using the drug.

"The explosion of medical marijuana patients has led to a lot of drivers sticking the (marijuana) card in law enforcement's face, saying, `You can't do anything to me, I'm legal,'" said Sean McAllister, a lawyer who defends people charged with driving under the influence of marijuana.

It's not that simple. Driving while impaired by any drug is illegal in all states.

But it highlights the challenges law enforcement officers face using old tools to try to fix a new problem. Most convictions for drugged driving now are based on police observations, followed later by a blood test.

Authorities envision a legal threshold for pot that would be comparable to the blood-alcohol standard used to determine drunken driving.

But unlike alcohol, marijuana stays in the blood long after the high wears off a few hours after use, and there is no quick test to determine someone's level of impairment — not that scientists haven't been working on it.

Dr. Marilyn Huestis of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a government research lab, says that soon there will be a saliva test to detect recent marijuana use.

But government officials say that doesn't address the question of impairment.

"I'll be dead — and so will lots of other people — from old age, before we know the impairment levels" for marijuana and other drugs, said White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske.

Authorities recognize the need for a solution. Marijuana causes dizziness, slowed reaction time and drivers are more likely to drift and swerve while they're high.

Dr. Bob DuPont, president of the Institute for Behavior and Health, a non-government institute that works to reduce drug abuse, says research proves "the terrible carnage out there on the roads caused by marijuana."

One recent review of several studies of pot smoking and car accidents suggested that driving after smoking marijuana might almost double the risk of being in a serious or fatal crash.

And a recent nationwide census of fatal traffic accidents showed that while deadly crashes have declined in recent years, the percentage of mortally wounded drivers who later tested positive for drugs rose 18 percent between 2005 and 2011.

DuPont, drug czar for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, wrote a paper last year on drugged driving for the Obama administration, which has made the issue a priority.

Physicians say that while many tests can show whether someone has recently used pot, it's more difficult to pinpoint impairment at any certain time.

Urine and blood tests are better at showing whether someone used the drug in the past — which is why employers and probation officers use them. But determining current impairment is far trickier.

"There's no sure answer to that question," said Dr. Guohua Li, a Columbia University researcher who reviewed marijuana use and motor vehicle crashes last year.

His survey linked pot use to crash risk, but pointed out wide research gaps. Scientists do not have conclusive data to link marijuana dosing to accident likelihood; whether it matters if the drug is smoked or eaten; or how pot interacts with other drugs.

The limited data has prompted a furious debate.

Proposed solutions include setting limits on the amount of the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana, THC, that drivers can have in their blood. But THC limits to determine impairment are not widely agreed upon.

Two states place the standard at 2 nanograms per milliliter of blood. Others have zero tolerance policies. And Colorado and Washington state are debating a threshold of 5 nanograms.

Such an attempt failed the Colorado Legislature last year, amid opposition from Republicans and Democrats. State officials then set up a task force to settle the question _ and the panel couldn't agree.

This year, Colorado lawmakers are debating a similar measure, but its sponsors concede they don't know whether the "driving while high" bill will pass.

In Washington state, the ballot measure on marijuana legalization includes a 5 nanogram THC limit.

The measure's backers say polling indicates such a driving limit could be crucial to winning public support for legalization.

"Voters were very concerned about impaired driving," said Alison Holcomb, campaign director for Washington's legalization measure.

Holcomb also pointed to a failed marijuana legalization proposal in California two years ago that did not include a driving THC limit.

The White House, which has a goal of reducing drugged driving by 10 percent in the next three years, wants states to set a blood-level standard upon which to base convictions, but has not said what that limit should be.

Administration officials insist marijuana should remain illegal, and Kerlikowske called it a "bogus argument" to say any legal level of THC in a driver is safe.

But several factors can skew THC blood tests, including age, gender, weight and frequency of marijuana use. Also, THC can remain in the system weeks after a user sobers up, leading to the anxiety shared by many in the 16 medical marijuana states: They could be at risk for a positive test at any time, whether they had recently used the drug or not.

A Colorado state forensic toxicologist testified recently that "5 nanograms is more than fair" to determine intoxication. But, for now the blood test proposals remain politically fraught, with supporters and opponents of marijuana legalization hinging support on the issue.

Huestis, of the government-funded drug abuse institute, says an easy-to-use roadside saliva test that can determine recent marijuana use _ as opposed to long-ago pot use _ is in final testing stages and will be ready for police use soon.

Researchers envision a day when marijuana tests are as common in police cars as Breathalyzers.

Until then, lawmakers will consider measures such as Colorado's marijuana DUI proposal, which marijuana activists say imperils drivers who frequently use the drug such as Chilton, the multiple sclerosis patient.

Chilton says she smokes medical marijuana twice a day to ease tremors caused by the condition that left her homebound for years.

She says that since she began using pot she has started driving again and for the first time in five years has landed a job.

Chilton worries Colorado's proposal jeopardizes her newfound freedom.

"I don't drink and drive, and I don't smoke and drive," she said. "But my body is completely saturated with THC."

Copyright 2012 Associated Press