Time to enforce drugged-driving laws
In 2016, Massachusetts became the first state east of the Mississippi River to legalize adult-use cannabis. Five years later, we have fallen asleep at the wheel when it comes to updating the state’s ineffective OUI laws against drugged driving.
A dozen state legislatures, including Rhode Island next door, have already enacted tougher laws and penalties surrounding this issue — some before their first legal pre-roll is ever sold. Let us not hold the dual distinction of being the first East Coast state to implement a secure, thoughtfully regulated cannabis industry, but last when it comes to safeguarding roadways and protecting motorists from the dangers of cannabis-impaired and drugged drivers.
As a cannabis industry regulator, I appeared before the Massachusetts Legislature’s Judiciary Committee in December and testified in my individual capacity in full support of H. 4255, “An Act implementing the recommendations of the Special Commission on Operating Under the Influence and Impaired Driving,” also known as the Trooper Thomas Clardy Law. The bill is named in honor of a trooper who was killed in 2016 during a traffic stop on the Mass Pike by a motorist who was found to have the main psychoactive component of marijuana (THC) in his blood at the time.
If passed, the Clardy Law would provide critical and overdue public safety tools that would save lives: It would significantly increase the number of municipal Drug Recognition Experts in our state, update implied consent laws for drugged driving so they are consistent with driving under the influence of alcohol, strengthen open container laws around cannabis, adopt the horizontal gaze nystagmus field sobriety test, and authorize the courts to take judicial notice of driving under the influence of THC.
Since codifying Chapter 94G into law more than four years ago, licensed marijuana establishments have blossomed across the commonwealth, amassing more than $2 billion dollars in gross sales while creating an impressive new source of tax revenue for lawmakers. Unfortunately, public safety laws responsible for protecting our roadways have not kept pace. In 2018, a Special Commission on Operating Under the Influence composed of civil liberties, public health and public safety leaders convened in accordance with state law.
The commission reviewed statutes surrounding driving under the influence of alcohol, cannabis, depressants, stimulants and other narcotics, as well as law enforcement officers’ ability to assess drivers suspected of impaired driving. Through that process, the commission issued recommendations, reflected in H. 4255, that would bring Massachusetts’ OUI statute into alignment with other states, close dangerous loopholes and bring needed resources to law enforcement agencies.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the time to act is now. Their interim report during the pandemic demonstrated, “almost two-thirds of seriously or fatally injured road users tested positive for at least one active drug, including alcohol, marijuana or opioids between mid-March and mid-July in 2020.” NHTSA collected data from five trauma centers nationwide, including one in Worcester.
In Massachusetts, recent data released from the Department of Transportation reported more than 400 fatalities occurred in 2021 on Massachusetts roadways due to distracted, high-risk and impaired driving — a staggering increase of 19% up from 343 roadway fatalities from the year before. People are driving recklessly and experts agree the pandemic has exacerbated high-risk behaviors behind the wheel, including drug-impaired driving.
Driving is a privilege, not a right. It is simple: No one drives safely under the influence of any impairing substance, including cannabis. Massachusetts must pass the Clardy Law to prevent the harms of driving high. It will save lives.