Stoners are not staying home to get high any more.
New research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety indicates that the number of THC-positive drivers involved in fatal crashes has more than doubled in percentage since Washington state legalized the recreational use of marijuana in 2012.
THC is the main psychoactive component in cannabis, and the detection of THC is suggestive of recent or frequent use of the drug.
The research study compared the five years before Washington Initiative 502 was enacted with the five years since recreational use has been permitted. The study found that before the law took effect, an average of 9 percent of all drivers in fatal crashes statewide tested positive for marijuana. In the five years following, that number doubled to 18 percent.In 2017 — the most recent year of available data for the study — an estimated 21 percent of all drivers involved in fatal crashes in Washington were THC-positive.