Horror stories about innocent drivers being hit head-on by drivers who have been using illegal drugs have been spreading throughout the media as of late. One such story is that of Blake Gaston, a twenty-three-year-old who had just left a restaurant on his motorcycle when he was hit by a driver who had been smoking marijuana.

Gaston was an accomplished musician and website designer whose future was bright–until it was ended by an irresponsible driver. Gaston’s mother, who was present at the scene of the accident, was horrified by the incident and saddened by the fact that her son’s life was taken at such a young age. “Blake was going to change the world,” she said. Her hug goodbye to her son as he left the restaurant was the last time she would embrace him before she saw him bleeding to death only fifty feet away.

Jake Nelson, the Director of Traffic Safety Advocacy and Research at AAA, said that “driving is already a tough task. When you add a drug that impairs our ability to manage that task, it’s a recipe for disaster.” This recipe for disaster calls for many Illinois impaired driving accident attorneys to file claims and work for compensation for those who have been injured or otherwise affected by an impaired driver.

How Dangerous is Driving High?

About seventy percent of people surveyed by LiveScience said that they believed that people who drove after smoking marijuana weren’t much of a problem. In contrast, seventy-nine percent of those polled believed that drivers impaired by alcohol were a very serious problem. They are right, considering that alcohol is responsible for about one-third of deaths caused by car accidents. Accident lawyers experienced in these types of cases have been called in time and time again to handle incidents in which drunk driving was a factor.

Although marijuana does have an effect on driving abilities, no data exists that proves that driving with THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) in your system increases traffic accidents. Tetrahydrocannabinol is the chemical at fault for the majority of psychological effects created by smoking or consuming marijuana. Benjamin Hansen, an expert on the subject, said that if people chose to drive under the influence of marijuana rather than under the influence of alcohol, the population would be safer as a whole.

A review of sixty studies showed that marijuana impairs the cognitive abilities needed to drive safely, such as tracking, motor coordination, visual function, and divided attention. However, these cognitive impairments were proven to be minimal and caused only a modest decline in driving performance in a study conducted by the American Journal of Addictions. This is a huge contrast to people who drive drunk because their cognitive impairment is significant enough to cause a dramatic decline in driving performance.

Another study found that those who smoked marijuana were more likely to weave within their own lane, but not to weave out of their lane or to speed. Drunk drivers were found to be more likely to do all three, causing many accidents and giving vehicle accident injury lawyers more work than ever before as the amount of drivers driving under the influence increases.

Drug Impaired Driving Laws

Every state in the union including Illinois has enacted laws to deal with impaired driving while on alcohol and drugs on some level. However, unlike the enacted laws that control alcohol-impaired driving problems, monitoring drug impairment is more difficult to enforce and more challenging to prosecute. In addition, active THC in the bloodstream tends to peak extremely fast and drops that nearly the same speed. However, even though it peaks in the bloodstream quickly, the impairment tends to last significantly longer.

While Illinois does have a zero tolerance for drugs, it does allow legal use of marijuana. However, marijuana-impairment when operating a vehicle is strictly prohibited, making it illegal to operate a motor vehicle with any amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in the bloodstream.

Does Driving High Increase Accidents?

The evidence supporting the above question is shaky at best. Some studies even suggest that marijuana use causes drivers to be more risk-averse because they overestimate their impairment. For example, they may follow cars from a longer distance and drive more slowly. Studies have even shown that drivers with THC in their system believe that their driving is impaired even when driving performance tests show that it is not. In contrast, drunk drivers are actually physically impaired, but they don’t think they’re impaired. They tend to speed and follow cars at closer distances. They also have a tendency to make dangerous last-minute decisions.

THC-impaired vehicle accident cases with injuries and fatalities are often highly complex and proving how the other driver at fault caused the accident is extremely challenging. This is why many victims will hire personal injury attorney who specializes in these types of cases.