Pubdate: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 Source: San Bernardino Sun (CA) Copyright: 2012 Los Angeles Newspaper Group Contact: http://www.sbsun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1417 Author: Paul Chabot Note: Paul Chabot, MPA, Ed.D, is the president of Coalition for a Drug Free California and Chabot Strategies LLC. He is the author of "Eternal Battle against Evil." battleevil.com. ASSEMBLYWOMEN TORRES' DRUGGED DRIVING BILL Assemblywoman Norma Torres has it right, and we thank her for paying attention to an issue affecting every single community in California - - drugged driving. We have more people driving "high" on our highways than we do driving drunk. While great strides have been made for decades to reduce drunken driving, virtually nothing has been done to address "drugged driving." With the explosion of domestic marijuana cartels in California selling pot out of storefronts, Californians are largely not surprised to learn that an ever-increasing number of traffic incidents involve people under the influence of marijuana - especially those driving to and from marijuana dispensaries. In California, it is estimated that well over 2,500 marijuana stores are in operation, and an estimated 1 million people now have pot ID cards for so-called "medical reasons" - a complete fraud-initiative that has caused California's youth great harm. Let's dig deeper into the drugged driving research. In 2007, the National Roadside Survey on Alcohol and Drug Use by Drivers found 1 in 8 weekend nighttime drivers tested positive for illicit drugs, nationally. Sadly, 1 in 8 high school seniors reported in 2010 (Monitoring the Future Study) that they smoked marijuana within two weeks prior to the interview for the survey. The Office of National Drug Control Strategy performed an analysis of 2009 data from the National Highway Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System that showed approximately 1 in 4 of those killed in a motor vehicle accident tested positive for illegal drugs and were under the age of 25. Digging deeper into the data revealed a rather shocking statistic - almost half of fatally injured drivers who tested positive for marijuana were under 25 years of age. In 2010, the National Highway Safety Administration report showed that overall, 3,952 fatally injured drivers tested positive for drugs. The Institute for Behavior and Health, along with the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, formulated a white paper on this issue which revealed that 33 percent of fatally injured drivers with known drug test results were positive for drugs other than alcohol, and, among randomly stopped weekend nighttime drivers who provided blood specimens, 16.3 percent were positive for drugs. Protecting our communities from drivers who are "high" requires a multi-prong approach, including: improving drugged driving education; identifying and evaluating promising models for drugged driver identification; conducting more drug impairment research; piloting more drugged driving behavioral research; shepherding more related treatment research (such as treatment for drug use), and a standardized drugged driving process. Assemblywoman Norma Torres should not only be congratulated for introducing legislation to crack down on "high" drivers, but must receive our support. I have been a longtime conservative Republican fighting the drug issue in California and around the nation. It wasn't too long ago that I simply assumed Sacramento was lost to liberals who wanted to legalize drugs. While some do exist, like Sen. Leno out of San Francisco and Assemblyman Ammiano, also out of San Francisco, we as conservatives have a few nuts on our side of the aisle as well who believe America should legalize drugs despite all common sense otherwise. Assemblywoman Norma Torres will need our support for another reason. The extremely wealthy pro-drug organizations and lobby groups have begun to target her because of this bill. They will harass her office to no end. We must stand united and not only call our elected officials to support her bill, but encourage other like-minded legislation go to the governor for signature - and a very good place to start is by ending the plague of marijuana dispensaries in our state. In short, Assemblywoman Norma Torres' bill levels the playing field against drugged drivers, will make our streets and communities safer, and raises awareness about the overall marijuana epidemic facing California. I strongly encourage my Republican friends to stand united in support of this Democrat-introduced bill. Peace and prayers to all who lost a loved one to an impaired driver. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom