Drug Impaired Driving
We’re coming out of the highest period of impaired driving. DUI arrests are at their highest between Thanksgiving and the end of New Year’s weekend. Driving under the influence (DUI), or driving while intoxicated (DWI), is the crime of operating a vehicle while impaired by alcohol or other drugs (including recreational drugs and those prescribed by physicians), to a level that renders the driver incapable of operating a motor vehicle safely.
Many people are cognizant of the effects of alcohol on driving safety, but fewer consider the impact of medications or drugs of abuse on driving. It is not unusual for someone to be assigned a designated driver for their friends who are drinking. But rarely does one become a designated driver for friends who take medications or use recreational drugs.
Every day, 28 people in the US die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. Drugs other than alcohol are involved in about 16% of those crashes. The effects of drugs differ for each person. It depends on which substance, the amount of substance in your body, whether there are multiple substances used, and how the brain reacts to the drug. But all of these factors can cause impaired driving, and possible death.
With the legalization of marijuana in some states, the number of people using cannabis is increasing. Marijuana can slow reaction time, impair judgment of time and distance, and decrease coordination. Studies have demonstrated negative effects of marijuana on driving. There is an increase in lane weaving, poor reaction time, and poor attention to the road. Mixing alcohol with marijuana caused even more lane weaving.
People who use stimulants such as cocaine or methamphetamine can be aggressive and reckless when driving. Sedatives, like benzodiazepines, cause dizziness and drowsiness. Heroin and prescribed painkillers can cause slowed reaction time, poor coordination, poor judgment, blurred vision, drowsiness, nausea and vomiting. Examples of hallucinogens include LSD, magic mushrooms, PCP and ketamine and, to a lesser extent, ecstasy and cannabis. They distort your perception of reality which means you could see things that are not there, or not see things that are there, both of which is a recipe for disaster when driving. Inhalants such as glue, paint solvents, and gasoline are sniffed from an open container or “huffed” from a rag soaked in the substance and held to the face. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, most inhalants cause a quick high similar to alcohol intoxication.
Use of any drug always carries some risk. Even prescribed medications can produce unwanted side effects and vary from person to person. How they affect a person depends on many things including size, weight and health, also whether the person is used to taking it and on the amount taken.
It is your responsibility to drive safely. Be aware of the effects of whatever medication or substance you put in your body. You can face DUI charges for any amount of a drug in your system. Be careful out there.