President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead a key federal traffic safety agency says he’s prepared to “double down” on increasing awareness about the risk of marijuana-impaired driving in partnership with the White House.
During a Senate committee hearing, the nominee to serve as administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Jonathan Morrison, was pressed on the need to develop technology to detect impairment from THC and also educate the public about the issue.
Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO), who has long focused on promoting public safety around cannabis and driving, noted at the hearing that while there’s a national standard for assessing alcohol impairment, “currently, there is no uniform national standard to measure marijuana impairment.”
“Creating a national standard marijuana impairment is going to ease the burden of law enforcement, prosecutions, help clarify legal requirements for states and, without question, save countless lives,” the senator said.
The NHTSA nominee agreed and added that he feels “there isn’t necessarily public consciousness that when people are using marijuana, that it has an impairing effect on their ability to drive a vehicle.”
He noted what he said were formerly “common” public attitudes in the 1950s where people would say, “I need another martini so I can calm down. I drive better when I’m impaired.”
“There’s absolutely been a shift in perception there of impaired driving. It’s too high,” Morrison said. “We haven’t seen that similar shift for marijuana, and it’s absolutely something that I would intend to double down on.”
He added that, if confirmed, he’d like to partner with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) “to work with them on that, as well as law enforcement.”
Hickenlooper said he thinks marijuana impaired driving is “one of those lurking giants that’s out there, and the country has not gotten their arms around the fact that more and more kids are are smoking pot instead of drinking.”
“You can see alcohol sales—beer sales—down all over the country, and yet we have no national program to really intercede and make sure they understand that they’re not driving better [after using marijuana],” he said.
Relatedly, a 2023 congressional report for a Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) bill said that the House Appropriations Committee “continues to support the development of an objective standard to measure marijuana impairment and a related field sobriety test to ensure highway safety.”
For this year’s House THUD bill, there’s language prohibitionists have cheered that would block NHTSA from supporting ads to “encourage illegal drug or alcohol use,” seemingly in response to previous marketing materials that leaned into cannabis culture to deter impaired driving.
NHSTA, often in partnership with state agencies, has been working to get the word out on the dangers of driving while impaired from THC amid the state legalization movement, often with cheeky memes that are meant to appeal to the cannabis consumer community rather than scare them away with judgmental messaging as has been the government’s approach in the past.
For example, last December the agency released new messaging aimed at promoting safe driving habits among cannabis users. One ad featured what appeared to be a stoned Christmas tree-shaped cannabis bud and includes the reminder: “If you enjoy the holiday greenery, find a sober ride.”
In 2021, NHTSA tried to get the word out about the dangers of impaired driving through an ad featuring a computer-generated cheetah smoking a joint and driving a convertible.
The agency also played on horror-movie tropes in a 2020 ad featuring two men running for their lives from an axe murderer. The pair ultimately find a vehicle to escape the scene, but the driver pauses before he turns the key in the ignition. “Wait wait wait,” he says. “I can’t drive. I’m high.”
—
Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.
Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.
—
In 2022, Hickenlooper sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) seeking an update on that status of a federal report into research barriers that are inhibiting the development of a standardized test for marijuana impairment on the roads. The department was required to complete the report under a large-scale infrastructure bill signed by then-President Joe Biden, but it missed its reporting deadline.
A 2022 report from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) noted that research into the impact of cannabis use on driving and highway safety is currently mixed, complicating rulemaking to address the issue. A separate 2019 report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) similarly found that evidence about cannabis’s ability to impair driving is inconclusive.
Marijuana Moment is made possible with support from readers. If you rely on our cannabis advocacy journalism to stay informed, please consider a monthly Patreon pledge.
