Only a third of Virginia drivers consider driving under the influence of marijuana to be extremely dangerous, and most perceive it to be less dangerous than texting and driving or driving after consuming alcohol.
About 17% of Virginians had driven high one or more times in the last month. That’s according to a survey the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority conducted in 2024.
As Virginia’s legislature could vote to legalize and establish a retail marijuana market this year, authorities are concerned about the tracking and prevalence of drug-impaired driving.
“We’re going to be really looking into the aspect of getting our officers trained in the areas of impaired driving,” said John Keohane, a retired police chief and chair of the VCCA Board. “That’s going to be a big key to this.”
In the meantime, the VCCA is promoting a safe driving campaign on streaming and broadcast radio.
Though the harmful effects of alcohol on driving are well-documented, researchers found that collecting data on the impacts of drugs, including cannabis, on driving, has a long way to go. According to a new report from the Department of Motor Vehicles and Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, that’s in part because unlike for alcohol, there is not a standardized metric for drug impairment. And, because certain drugs can linger in the body long after their effects have worn off, the presence of drugs like cannabis does not necessarily indicate the person was actively impaired while they were driving. Using multiple drugs and variations in individuals’ tolerance for them also complicate gathering the data.
At the scene of a car crash, there is no standard set of circumstances under which a drug test is conducted. If there is testing, it’s not always for the same drugs. And if alcohol is detected, individual officers might not test for additional drugs since alcohol is enough for a driver to be charged with a DUI.
“Despite these limitations, the need to better understand drug-impaired driving has become increasingly urgent,” the report reads.
That’s because there is a growing prevalence of drug use among drivers, the report found, due to factors like cannabis legalization across the country and the ongoing opioid crisis.
Keohane noted that other drugs in addition to cannabinoids were of concern for safe driving, but said it wasn’t yet known if a legal retail market would increase instances of driving while under the influence of drugs.
“I think it’s a little easier for the identification of alcohol,” he said in an interview after the board met Wednesday. “They have more of the tools at this point. But we’re trying to give (law enforcement) more of the tools and the training to be successful in cases involving impaired driving.”
Between 2020 and 2024, 782 deceased drivers tested positive for alcohol levels above the legal driving limit and cannabinoids were found in the bloodstreams of 566 deceased drivers. Stimulants and opioids were found present in, respectively, 394 and 309 deceased drivers over the five-year period. In some cases, a combination of drugs and alcohol or multiple drugs were detected.
According to the DMV report, a growing number of DUIs might be driven by greater enforcement rather than an increase in people driving under the influence. For example, blood sample submissions nearly doubled from 2022 to 2023 after a procedural change required all drivers arrested for a DUI in Virginia to have a blood sample submitted for further testing for the presence of cannabis. The numbers did increase again in 2024, so it’s worth monitoring in future years, the report said.
Likewise, though the number of cannabis-positive blood samples in drivers with a blood alcohol content (BAC) above the legal limit for driving rose sharply from 2022 to 2024.
“This pattern cannot be attributed solely to increased consumption of cannabis, especially since testing volume nearly doubled during this period,” the report said. “These increases are likely to reflect better detection following changes in testing policy rather than sudden shifts in substance use.”
The study recommended requiring agencies to use a unique identifier to allow tracking of offenders through the entire DUI process, from initial roadside contact with law enforcement through toxicology testing and court proceedings. That would help track recidivism and easier of identification of high-risk repeat offenders, the report said. The report also recommended standardizing the roadside testing protocols to determine when drivers should be tested for drugs in addition to alcohol.
Kate Seltzer, 757-713-7881, kate.seltzer@virginiamedia.com
