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Drugs and Driving: We're Finally Talking About It
Twenty years ago, faced with a yearly increase in the tragic and needless accidents caused by drunk driving, Americans banded together to make people more aware of the dangers of drinking and getting behind the wheel. As a result of their efforts, drunk driving deaths are 40% lower now than in 1982, when 18,444 people died. |
While most people are getting the message about drunk driving, according to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, more than 8 million people aged 12 or older reported driving under the influence of illegal drugs last year. Illegal drugs are used by approximately 10 to 22 percent of drivers involved in car accidents, often in combination with alcohol.
A recent rash of incidents points to a growing problem: In March of this year, a Wisconsin truck driver with marijuana-and no alcohol-in his system slammed into a car driven by an 18-year-old woman, split it in two, and killed the driver. This last summer, a teenager in the same state smashed a car into a house after taking a prescription painkiller. Recently, a Virginia teen who'd been drinking and smoking pot wrecked his car and killed three passengers-his high school friends. In October 2002, he was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison.
Different drugs impair drivers in different ways-and none of them is good. Any drug-illegal, prescription, or even over-the-counter-can cause slower reaction time, altered depth perception, hyperactivity, reduced peripheral vision, confusion, and/or drowsiness. Two of the drugs most commonly abused by teens, marijuana and ecstasy, are particularly dangerous for drivers. They each distort visual perception, impair motor coordination and reaction time, and inhibit a person's ability to think and solve problems. In the case of marijuana, these effects can last several hours after smoking. Ecstasy has the added danger of being a stimulant that can create false confidence and a feeling of energy and power. Like other stimulants, such as cocaine or meth, ecstasy may increase risky driving behaviors like speeding or sudden, unsignaled lane changes.
A roadside study of reckless drivers who were not impaired by alcohol showed that 45 percent tested positive for marijuana. Another study of patients in a shock trauma unit who had been in traffic accidents revealed that 15 percent of those who had been driving a car or motorcycle had been smoking marijuana, and another 17 percent had both THC and alcohol in their blood.
A Wake-Up Call
Kati S., a woman whose drug use as a teen was profiled two years ago on the television news show 48 Hours, had a close call when driving while high on GHB -- a hypnotic sedative that can diminish concentration and coordination, and even make a person pass in and out of consciousness. Kati rear-ended a car stopped at a light, was knocked out, and airlifted to a hospital. "They said they thought I was dead," Kati recalls. "I remember just waking up and having no clothes on and all these people looking at me." The hospital tested her for alcohol, but she hadn't been drinking. Because the driver of the car she hit was unhurt, Kati wasn't tested for the presence of other drugs, and was never charged with anything.
Fortunately, as the number of drugged drivers on the roads has risen in recent years, so has the likelihood that they'll face legal consequences. Today, there are state-certified drug-recognition experts, or DREs, among American police officers. A DRE is trained and authorized to extend the typical roadside sobriety check-walking, balancing, and nose-touching-with other tests like pupil size and movement, heart rate, and behavioral observations. An officer who is a drug-recognition expert has the authority to find "probable cause" to make a drugged driver take a urine or blood test-which could guarantee prosecution.
Of course, it isn't only the thought of jail time or losing your license that should make you think twice about driving under the influence-it's the possibility that you could hurt yourself, or your friends, or others, if you give up control of your car to drugs. While Kati escaped prosecution for her accident, it's hard to think of her as lucky. Her drug use eventually ruined her life, causing other scrapes with the law, the death of a close friend-and her own near-death-by overdose, and long-term mental and psychological problems. After years of therapy, she's finally back where she started: a bright, lively person with hopes for the future. "I just wish I would have listened more," she says. "I always looked at my parents and the people who were telling me that 'drugs were bad' as dorks. I remember just looking at them and thinking they were goody-goody. I (used to tell) my friends not to do drugs. Then my attitude completely changed once I tried them, but it's just not worth it. I lost everything."
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