East Lansing, MI: The percentage of US adults who self-report engaging in driving under the influence of alcohol or other controlled substances is decreasing, according to data published in the journal Addictive Behaviors.
Researchers affiliated with Michigan State University and with the University of Michigan assessed drugged driving prevalence among a nationally representative sample for the years 2016 to 2020.
They reported that fewer adults acknowledged driving under the influence of either alcohol, cannabis, or other illicit substances. In particular, they highlighted, “Subgroups with past-year cannabis use that displayed significant declines in DUIC [DUI cannabis] include males, [those] ages 18–25, Non-Hispanic Whites and Hispanics, those with a high school education or less, and those living in a state with a medical cannabis law.”
Authors concluded, “US population trends of DUI from any substance declined from 2016 to 2020.”
Recent studies have consistently reported that adults residing in jurisdictions where cannabis is legal are less likely to report having driven under the influence as compared to those who do not.
Full text of the study, “Driving under the influence of cannabis, alcohol, and illicit drugs among adults in the United States from 2016 to 2020,” appears in Addictive Behaviors. Additional information is available from NORML’s Fact Sheet, ‘Marijuana and Psychomotor Performance.’
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