A new survey has revealed that although many believe driving under the influence of marijuana is bad, texting while driving is even worse.
The survey was released on Tuesday and was conducted by the Harris Poll on behalf of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.
According to the survey, 91% of Americans believe that driving while under the influence of marijuana is dangerous. 87% of Americans believe driving under the influence poses a risk to other drivers on the road. Only 40% of Americans believe that driving under the influence of the drug contributes to more vehicle accidents on the road.
A whopping 99% of Americans surveyed believe that social media is more dangerous than driving under the influence of marijuana while 98% believe that texting is more dangerous.
According to Robert Gordon, the senior vice president of policy development and research for PCI, who spoke to U.S. News, there needs to be more research on the drug’s effects to figure out what constitutes impairment to the point that someone should not be behind the vehicle driving.
Gordon has said that parents need to be more involved in speaking with their children as almost 70% of the parents have not discussed driving under the influence of drugs with their children. He told U.S. News, “Public education and awareness at home and school are an important step to educating teens on the dangers of driving under the influence. There have been extensive efforts to reduce crashes and deaths from driving under the influence of alcohol and distracted driving – we need to add driving under the influence of marijuana to the list of dangers on the road.”
He also said, “States need to be equipped with the latest research, data, laws and programs to help them address this growing problem. Increased training for law enforcement is necessary to help them identify and arrest drugged drivers.”
