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UK: Cannabis doubles the risk of fatal crashes

Gaia Vince

New Scientist

Friday 02 Dec 2005

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Cannabis almost doubles the risk of fatal car crashes, according to a
new study, though smoking the drug is still far less risky than
drink-driving, the researchers say.

Stoned drivers were almost twice as likely to be involved in a fatal car
crashes than abstemious drivers, according to a study of 10,748 fatal
car crashes in France between 2001 and 2003. More than half of the
drivers in the study themselves died as a result of their accidents and
all the subjects were tested for drug and alcohol use after crashing.

Even after accounting for factors such as the age of the drivers and the
condition of the vehicle, the researchers conclude that cannabis caused
a significant number of the fatalities, with 2.5% of the crashes
directly attributed to cannabis use. Alcohol was the direct cause of
about 29%.

Using cannabis and alcohol together was 16 times more risky than driving
with neither drug in their body.

"You are more likely to be involved in a crash, probably because of the
drug’s effect on your reaction times and concentration," says Jean-Louis
Martin who carried out the research at the Universite Claude Bernard in
Lyon, France. "But the drug also makes you more vulnerable to the
effects of the crash, so you are more likely to die." The study did not
explore why cannabis smokers fair less well in a crash.
Young males

The researchers found it was younger drivers, more often male and
driving older cars, mopeds or motorcycles, who were most likely to have
taken cannabis. A total of 681 drivers tested positive for cannabis (7%
of all the drivers in the study), while 2096 drivers had illegal
concentrations of alcohol in their bodies (21.4%).

While cannabis is an illegal drug in France, and specific penalties
exist for those who drive while under its influence, the prevalence of
cannabis in the French driving population is 2.9%, similar to that for
alcohol, at 2.7%.

"These shocking results prove beyond doubt the dangers of drug-driving,
and of mixing drink and drugs before getting behind the wheel," says
Mary Williams, chief executive of Brake, the UK’s national road safety
charity.

"We need to see the government doing targeted, prime-time TV advertising
on the issue of drug-driving, and we desperately need to see drink- and
drug-driving being discussed with young people as part of a compulsory
health and safety curriculum at school and during novice driver
training," she adds. "We also need to see a national roll out of
roadside drugs-testing by the police to catch drug-drivers before they
kill or injure innocent road users."

Journal reference: British Medical Journal (DOI:
10.1136/bmj.38648.617986.1F)

 

 

 

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