Marijuana Legalization Group Helps Craft New Impaired Driving Prevention Bill In Congress

A leading marijuana advocacy group had a hand in drafting a new congressional bill aimed at combating drug-impaired driving. Reps. Kathleen Rice (D-NY) and Troy Balderson (R-OH) filed the legislation on Friday. It would create an annual $5 million federal grant fund for states to promote public education around the issue. Opponents of legalization frequently claim that allowing legal cannabis sales will increase instances of impaired driving, but that’s not backed up by solid evidence. What may come as a surprise to prohibitionists who feel that advocates are promoting a dangerous reform, however, is that those same activists are similarly invested in pushing evidence-based policies to mitigate the risk. NORML helped the lawmakers draft the bill with an eye toward data-informed practices. States that receive the grant money would have to “use evidence and strategies recommended by” the Congressional Research Service (CRS) in a 2019 report, as well as a separate National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) 2017 report and “other evidence-based, peer-reviewed strategies as determined by” the transportation secretary, text of the legislation states. CRS determined last year that concerns expressed by lawmakers that cannabis legalization will make the roads more dangerous might not be totally founded. The body found that evidence about marijuana’s ability to impair driving is currently inconclusive. “Although laboratory studies have shown that marijuana consumption can affect a person’s response times and motor performance, studies of the impact of marijuana consumption on a driver’s risk of being involved in a crash have produced conflicting results,…

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Source : MJ moment
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