 The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released a report last week that urges states with legalized cannabis to add warning labels to cannabis products that references the dangers of driving while impaired.
There actually already are several legal states which require such labeling, but since not all of them do, the reports stressed it’s importance and urged them all to follow suit. Their report noted that the federal prohibition on cannabis creates a barrier to any type of national-level consumer education efforts, and thus their urging for the states to do so. And while the National Transportation and Safety Board acknowledged that it is unclear if these type of warning labels and media campaigns can actually change driver behavior, they do feel that it would at the very least increase awareness of the risks. They wrote, “In theory, if drivers have greater awareness of the risks, they may be less likely to use drugs if they know they must drive.” The report did acknowledge that “alcohol remains the drug with the most detrimental impact on traffic safety; however,…” they pointed out that, “cannabis and other potentially impairing drugs [do also] contribute to the problem of impaired driving crashes.” Experts and advocates have emphasized that evidence isn’t clear on the relationship between THC concentrations in blood and impairment. A study published in 2019, for example, concluded that those who drive at the legal THC limit—which is typically between two to five nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood--were not statistically more likely to be involved in an accident compared to people who haven’t used marijuana. Separately, the Congressional Research Service in 2019 determined that while “marijuana consumption can affect a person’s response times and motor performance…studies of the impact of marijuana consumption on a driver’s risk of being involved in a crash have produced conflicting results, with some studies finding little or no increased risk of a crash from marijuana usage.” Another study that was published last year found that smoking CBD-rich marijuana had “no significant impact” on driving ability, despite the fact that all study participants exceeded the per se limit for THC in their blood. Comments are closed.
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