See other Health Articles
Title: More Drivers Killed Under the Influence of Drugs Than Alcohol
Source:
[None]
URL Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/health- ... nfluence-of-drugs-than-alcohol
Published: May 31, 2018
Author: Alexa Lardieri, Staff Writer
Post Date: 2018-05-31 13:36:56 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 97
Comments: 6
A new report found fatally injured drivers are increasingly under the influence of one or more drugs.Surge More Fatal injuries due to drunk driving have decreased, while fatal injuries due to drug-impaired driving have increased.(STR/AFP/Getty Images) Some 22.3 percent of fatally injured motorists who were tested for drugs tested positive for marijuana in 2016, a figure that researchers say has "increased substantially" in recent years as states have legalized the drug for recreational or medicinal use, according to a new report. The finding, in a study released Thursday by the Governors Highway Safety Association, was one of several regarding the growing prevalence of drugs in vehicle fatalities. The report also found that 44 percent of drivers killed in automobile accidents in 2016 who were tested for drugs tested positive for one or more substances – a number that was up 28 percent from 10 years prior. That figure eclipsed the 37.9 percent who were known to have been tested for alcohol and tested positive – a figure that actually fell in the last decade, from 41 percent in 2006. [ READ: Fake Pot a Scourge in Shadow of Opioid Crisis ] The report was intended to draw attention to the need to incorporate a drug message into programs that encourage motorists not to drive while impaired. It noted that marijuana was the most commonly found drug. Jim Hedlund, author of the study, says "marijuana use has become more normalized" as states across the country decriminalize the drug. "If use is up, use by drivers is up," Hedlund says. Hedlund attributes the decline in alcohol-related deaths to the "broad societal consensus" that drunk driving is wrong. There's a "strong societal consensus. It's [drunk driving] is bad," he says. "Everyone knows it's bad." However, this way of thinking hasn't caught up to drug-impaired driving yet. That's where education comes in. "That's the next step. Precisely to provide that education," Hedlund says. RELATED CONTENT New Poll Shows Attitudes Toward Driving Under… The report suggests that some of the strategies used to decrease drunk driving can be applied to prevent people from driving while on drugs. However, several challenges come with that. A driver can consume a vast number of drugs that would be difficult to test for. Additionally, no nationally accepted method exists for testing drug-impaired drivers, and different drugs have different effects on different people. Among recommendations to reduce drug-impaired driving, the study points to the need to develop impairment-assessment tools, such as oral-fluid devices and marijuana breath-test instruments, to support the drug-impaired-driving prosecution process by increasing law enforcement training, authorizing electronic search warrants for drug tests, and to educate prosecutors and judges on drug-impaired driving. Hedlund outlined additional recommendations, including raising public awareness about the impairments certain drugs have on the body, and working with pharmacists to improve communication between drugmakers and consumers. Alexa Lardieri, Staff Writer
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Ada (#0)
At Sunday dinner I was shocked -- a friend who works for a major car repair chain says they have big headaches with employment because most applicants by far fail the drug test. He's older than lots of workers there but they love being able to send him when the company's spot-testing its stores for drug use -- something like that. Horror stories from other businesses followed. If God doesn't strike ameriKa dead (the rest of the way) he'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. _____________________________________________________________ USA! USA! USA! Bringing you democracy, or else! there were strains of VD that were incurable, and they were first found in the Philippines and then transmitted to the Korean working girls via US military. The 'incurables' we were told were first taken back to a military hospital in the Philippines to quietly die. – 4um
I am assuming its drugs that are responsible for the rise in the US death rate.
They have to be a huge factor. Mebbe the PTB push push push legal drug addiction as a means of culling present and future SS recipients.
_____________________________________________________________ USA! USA! USA! Bringing you democracy, or else! there were strains of VD that were incurable, and they were first found in the Philippines and then transmitted to the Korean working girls via US military. The 'incurables' we were told were first taken back to a military hospital in the Philippines to quietly die. – 4um
I suspect that they're already experts at it. Drug test them. Prescription drugs are the big killer. There are heroin addicts and dealers living all up and down the street I live on. Mostly down street, the Mexicans on this block hate junkies and the mostly negro dealers that scooter it around. Still a major problem in this zip code.
“I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. My affections, being concentrated over a few people, are not spread all over Hell in a vile attempt to placate sulky, worthless shits.” - William S Burroughs
Maybe not. According to the article, "A driver can consume a vast number of drugs that would be difficult to test for. Additionally, no nationally accepted method exists for testing drug-impaired drivers, and different drugs have different effects on different people."
#2. To: NeoconsNailed (#1)
#3. To: Ada (#2)
#4. To: Ada, raiding the drug evidence locker (#0)
educate prosecutors and judges on drug-impaired driving
DACA Shithole Dreamers - Make America Great Again?
#5. To: hondo68 (#4)
#6. To: hondo68 (#4)
I suspect that they're already experts at it.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest