Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is claiming that if voters approve a marijuana legalization initiative at the ballot this November, people “will be able to bring 20 joints to an elementary school”—and he again complained about the prevalent odor of cannabis that he says would result from the reform. “Even if you have no interest […]
Reminds me of the fear mongering a conservative family member was spouting when my state legalized weed. She was going on and on about how car accidents were going to “skyrocket” because everyone would be driving high. We’ve been legalized for about four years now, the first time I heard about any high driving incident was a couple of weeks ago when two people died. Now, obviously the number of high drivers is probably more than that, and any kind of intoxicated driving is irresponsible, but that’s the first time I heard a case make the news, meanwhile NHTSA says an average of 37 people die due to drunk driving per day.
Alcohol is pretty unique as a drug in causing car accidents. Most other drugs will either relax/sedate you enough so you don’t want to go out (opiates, ketamine), make you anxious enough so you won’t want to drive (cannabis, hallucinogens), or stimulate you enough so that if you do drive you probably won’t be that bad (coke, meth). Only alcohol will keep you up enough to socialize, confident enough to drive, and impaired enough to crash. Even if you were to legalize all drugs alcohol would still probably be the largest cause by far for impaired driving accidents.
Reminds me of the fear mongering a conservative family member was spouting when my state legalized weed. She was going on and on about how car accidents were going to “skyrocket” because everyone would be driving high. We’ve been legalized for about four years now, the first time I heard about any high driving incident was a couple of weeks ago when two people died. Now, obviously the number of high drivers is probably more than that, and any kind of intoxicated driving is irresponsible, but that’s the first time I heard a case make the news, meanwhile NHTSA says an average of 37 people die due to drunk driving per day.
Alcohol is pretty unique as a drug in causing car accidents. Most other drugs will either relax/sedate you enough so you don’t want to go out (opiates, ketamine), make you anxious enough so you won’t want to drive (cannabis, hallucinogens), or stimulate you enough so that if you do drive you probably won’t be that bad (coke, meth). Only alcohol will keep you up enough to socialize, confident enough to drive, and impaired enough to crash. Even if you were to legalize all drugs alcohol would still probably be the largest cause by far for impaired driving accidents.