What You Need to Know about Substance Use and Driving – Including Marijuana

"Each December, we recognize National Impaired Driving Prevention Month to raise awareness about the dangers of impaired driving and how to prevent impaired driving and related crashes, injuries, and deaths.

Driving while impaired by any substance is dangerous and illegal. The following substances can impair driving:

• Alcohol
• Marijuana
• Other illicit drugs like heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, or hallucinogens
• Some prescription medications like opioids and antidepressants
• Some over-the-counter medications like sleep aids and allergy medicines

Fast Facts

• 11,654 people in the United States were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2020—a 14% increase from 2019. That’s about 32 people every day or one person every 45 minutes.^[i]
• 7 million Americans reported driving under the influence of marijuana or other illicit drugs in 2020.^[ii]
• Alcohol and marijuana were the two most commonly reported substances involved in impaired driving in 2018, with 8% and 4.7% of the U.S. population aged ≥16 years reporting alcohol and marijuana respectively.^[iii]
• 1 in 8 high school student drivers reported driving after using marijuana at least once during the past month in 2017.^[iv]

How Does Substance Use Affect Driving?

How Marijuana Use Affects Driving

Driving is a complex task that requires your full attention to stay safe and alert. Marijuana use affects areas of the brain that control your body’s movements, balance, coordination, memory, and judgment. Marijuana use can impair important skills required for safe driving by:

• Slowing your reaction time and ability to make decisions
• Making it difficult to multitask
• Impairing coordination
• Distorting perception^{[i],[ii],[iii]}

If you are impaired, you cannot drive safely. It is illegal and dangerous to drive if you are impaired after using marijuana.

How Alcohol Affects Driving

The amount of alcohol in a person’s system is called blood alcohol concentration (BAC). Most states have set the legal BAC limit for driving at 0.08 grams of alcohol per deciliter (g/dL); the limit is 0.05g/dL in Utah.^[i] However, impairment starts at lower BAC levels, with even small amounts of alcohol affecting the ability to drive. The effects of alcohol use on driving include:

• Difficulty steering
• Reduced ability to respond to emergency driving situations
• Reduced ability to maintain lane position and brake appropriately
• Reduced ability to process what is happening on the road.."
  Impaired driving 

Recovery Is for Everyone: Understanding Treatment of Substance Use Disorders

"Millions of Americans have a substance use disorder (SUD)¹, and it remains an important health issue in our country. With effective treatment, recovery is possible. There is strength in getting help.

What is SUD?

An SUD is a treatable, chronic disease, characterized by a problematic pattern of use of a substance leading to noticeable impairment or distress. SUDs can lead to significant problems in all aspects of a person’s life.

Patterns of symptoms resulting from substance use can help a doctor diagnose a person with SUD and connect them to appropriate treatment. For certain drug types, some symptoms are less prominent, and in some cases, not all symptoms apply. For example, withdrawal symptoms are not specified for inhalant use

A SUD can be applied to the following types of drugs ²:

• Alcohol
• Cannabis
• Hallucinogens
• Inhalants
• Opioids
• Sedatives, hypnotics, or anxiolytics
• Stimulants
• Tobacco (nicotine)
• Other (unknown) substance

Treatment and Recovery Options

Overcoming an SUD is not as simple as resisting the temptation to take drugs. Like many other chronic conditions, treatment is available for substance use disorders. While no single treatment method is right for everyone, recovery is possible, and help is available for patients with SUDs.

Evidence-based guidelines can assist doctors with choosing the right treatment options. These guidelines help evaluate a patient’s clinical needs and situation to match them with the right level of care, in the most appropriate available setting. For more information on evidence-based guidelines visit Addiction Medicine Primer..."
Substance Abuse 

Teen Substance Use & Risks

"Parents play a critical role in their children’s lives. As their children grow to pre-teens and teens, parents worry about new risks they may experience. One such risk is the use of substances, such as alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, and other drugs. Parents can help by talking to their teen’s pediatrician about screening for substance use.

Substance use by teens can have a big impact on their health and well-being. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), developed a guide for implementing substance use screening in pediatric practices to help pediatricians address substance use concerns. The AAP recommends screening for substance use in children, starting at 9 years of age.

Substance Use Among Teens

The guide highlights the most commonly used substances and the extent of the problem, such as

• Alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco are substances most commonly used by adolescents.¹
• By 12th grade, about two-thirds of students have tried alcohol.¹
• About half of 9th through 12th grade students reported ever having used marijuana.²
• About 4 in 10 9th through 12th grade students reported having tried cigarettes.³
• Among 12th graders, close to 2 in 10 reported using prescription medicine without a prescription.¹

Although it is illegal for people under 21 years of age to drink alcohol, the findings show that people from 12 to 20 years of age consume about one-tenth of all alcohol consumed in the United States..."
Teen susbtance abuse

Your Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Benefits

"Imagine your child is experiencing anxiety and depression and has suicidal thoughts. Or you are recovering from an eating disorder and need treatment at a residential facility. Then you’re told you have to pay deductibles and copayments that your workplace health coverage normally covers for other medical claims.  Before you know it, these out-of-pocket costs are adding up to thousands of dollars you just don’t have. 

Unfortunately, these are real scenarios that benefits advisors at the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration have heard about recently.

But the good news for these workers – and you − is that a federal law called the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act provides protections. In most cases, the financial requirements (such as copayments, deductibles, coinsurance or out-of-pocket maximums) and treatment limitations in a health plan must be comparable for both physical and mental health/substance addiction benefits.

In these two cases, our benefits advisors contacted the workers’ benefit plans to make sure that they complied with the act. And both employer-provided plans agreed to pay the benefits to which the workers are legally entitled.."
Mental health & substance abuse

Your Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Benefits

"Imagine your child is experiencing anxiety and depression and has suicidal thoughts. Or you are recovering from an eating disorder and need treatment at a residential facility. Then you’re told you have to pay deductibles and copayments that your workplace health coverage normally covers for other medical claims.  Before you know it, these out-of-pocket costs are adding up to thousands of dollars you just don’t have. 

Unfortunately, these are real scenarios that benefits advisors at the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration have heard about recently.

But the good news for these workers – and you − is that a federal law called the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act provides protections. In most cases, the financial requirements (such as copayments, deductibles, coinsurance or out-of-pocket maximums) and treatment limitations in a health plan must be comparable for both physical and mental health/substance addiction benefits..."

Mental health and substance use

Answers to Your Top Questions on Substance Use Disorders

"Michael Botticelli answers questions from a Facebook chat with The Addict's Mom, an online community of loved ones of those struggling with substance use disorders.

A few weeks ago, I joined in a Facebook chat with The Addict's Mom, an online community of mothers with children and family members suffering from substance use disorders. It was a privilege for me to listen to their experiences and help provide answers on the heroin and prescription opioid epidemic in this country.

I couldn't respond to all of the questions asked in the chat, but as promised, my team and I put together answers for some of the most-asked questions. Take a look, and share if you know any friends or family who might have similar questions.."

Substance abuse

Tip: Managing Depressive Symptoms in Substance Abuse Clients During Early Recovery
"This TIP, Managing Depressive Symptoms in Substance Abuse Clients During Early Recovery, provides substance abuse counselors the "what," "why," and "how-to" of working with clients with depressive symptoms and substance use disorders, covering topics such as counseling approaches, clinical settings, cultural concerns, counselor roles and responsibilities, screening and assessment, treatment planning and processes, and continuing care. This TIP also provides administrators information about incorporating the management of depressive symptoms into their substance abuse programs, complete with a systematic approach to designing and implementing a supportive infrastructure. The Literature Review synthesizes the most current knowledge and scientific findings on the topic and is only available online at www.kap.samhsa.gov."