CDC Report Shows Millions of Americans are Driving Under Influence of Cannabis
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]A[/dropcap] new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals that millions of Americans were driving under the influence of cannabis over the past year.
According to CNN, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released Dec. revealed that last year, 12 million American adults admitted to driving under the influence of cannabis at some point. Around 2.3 million said they had driven under the influence of substances like cocaine or methamphetamine.
This means that in total, 4.7 percent of Americans drive after using cannabis. Still, while this number may seem shocking to some, it’s still nothing compared to the rate of those who admit to drinking and driving. As of 2018, 8 percent of Americans admitted to driving drunk.
According to the report, male drivers were more likely to use cannabis and drive than female drivers, and folks 21-25 were the most likely to use cannabis and drive, followed by people ages 16-20.
Still, despite the fact that not as many use cannabis as alcohol before they drive, the authors of the report still stated that these numbers are high and should encourage states to crack down on cannabis and driving and develop betters tools to tell if someone is under the influence. They were especially concerned about the young age of some of the people who admit to using cannabis and driving.
The CDC has recently been spending a lot of time focusing on the recent rash of vaping illnesses and the organization is usually pretty fair in its conclusions. They even claimed that doctors should stop testing for cannabis and instead focus on looking out for dangerous opioid addictions. Regardless of this lack of bias, they’re still very opposed to cannabis on the road.
