Anti-Pot Group Claims Roads More Dangerous Since Legalization

iStock/Thinkstock(DENVER) — Opponents of Colorado’s legalized marijuana laws think that a new report on vehicular fatalities related to pot use might help them eventually reinstate a ban against the drug.

Tom Gorman, director of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program, says that when laws against marijuana use started being relaxed in 2012, deaths involving cars when someone tested positive for grass jumped to 78, compared to 39 fatalities in 2007.

This includes people with marijuana in their system who may have been a motorist, a bicyclist or a pedestrian.

According to Gorman, driving while stoned impairs judgment and reaction time “and when that happens you’re potentially a danger on the road.”

He believes these findings could eventually lead to the re-criminalization of the sale and use of marijuana within four to six years.

However, Michael Elliott, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group, contends the research Gorman’s group uses is faulty because people can test positive for pot three weeks after smoking it.

Elliott also says that in the actual period covered by the report, overall traffic deaths in Colorado fell by 15 percent.

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