BLACKSBURG, Va. (WFXR)– As lawmakers in Richmond continue debating a path forward for retail marijuana sales, there are few studies on the impact of cannabis use behind the wheel. The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) is helping to fill the gap through a long-term driving study.
40 states across the country have legalized marijuana use for either recreational or medicinal use; however, there isn’t much research on how cannabis-use affects impaired driving. The VTTI’s first-of-its-kind long-term study observes driving through “naturalistic driving data.”
“This is where we put in cameras and sensors into someone’s personal vehicle, to be a fly on the wall, if you will, and observe their natural behavior over time,” said Kaitlyn Bedwell, senior research associate at VTTI. “So with cannabis, this is really important because it’s so individualized.”
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For two years, researchers studied people who regularly used cannabis in both Virginia and Washington state. The drivers were aged 21 to 70. Over 150,000 miles were tracked, 9,000 involved cannabis use, 1,000 involved alcohol, and 400 miles involved more than one drug. The rest were considered a baseline of substance-free driving…