Baby, You Can Drive My Car...Unless You're Stoned: Driving High

Putting paranoia and the munchies aside, many stoners might suggest that driving under the influence of marijuana could actually be safer than driving stone-cold sober. Their reasoning? A little ganja might actually make them drive under the speed limit . That paranoia? Well, it might make them pay a bit more attention to the road. Unfortunately, recent research suggests that driving stoned may not be as safe as some pot lovers swear by. 

A recent report by the American Journal of Epidemiology found that the incidence of car crash victims with marijuana in their systems rose from 4.2 percent in 1999 to 12.2 percent in 2010.

"Currently, one of nine drivers involved in fatal crashes would test positive for marijuana," study co-author Dr. Guohua Li, director of the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia said, via HealthDay. "If this trend continues, in five or six years non-alcohol drugs will overtake alcohol to become the most common substance involved in deaths related to impaired driving."

The study specifically looked at how alcohol contributes to roughly the same percentage of traffic fatalities each year at roughly 40 percent. Yet other substances have also increased from 16 percent due to traffic deaths in 1996 to 28 percent in 2010, with marijuana being the most prevalent drug implicated for the uptick. 

Data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System from the years 1999 to 2010 based on an analysis of toxicology results showed that 23,500 drivers from California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and West Virginia were killed in car accidents involving the drug.

But just how dangerous is driving while high? According to experts, the short answer is simply that...there is no short answer. However, the drug can mess up the body's response and reaction time. Translation: Probably not the best idea to be using or under the influence when driving.

However, as many medical officials compare the drug to the hindering affects of alcohol, deputy director Paul Armentano of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), discusses how marijuana is a very different drug.

"We have this notion that since we have a magic number for alcohol, we are going to have a similar number for marijuana," Armentano said. "The problem is that marijuana is not metabolized and absorbed by the body in the same way alcohol is."

Other officials also distinguish the difference between chronic stoners and those taking the drug for medical purposes.

"There's quite a bit of difference with a first-time, non-experienced marijuana user and somebody who's using it every day for medical purposes or otherwise, in terms of impairment and how it affects you," said Dana Larsen of Sensible BC.

Regardless of whether you've got pot in your system for medical or recreational reasons, do you think it's safe to be driving?

Share in the comments below.