THE QUESTION:
How has recreational marijuana affected DUI and traffic deaths?
THE ANSWER:
Alcohol remains the most deadly drug on Colorado roads, but marijuana's problems behind the wheel have grown.
WHAT WE FOUND:
Marijuana has been legal in Colorado for seven years, which gives us ample data on how this drug impacts drivers and driving.
According to the Denver Police Department, DUI citations for marijuana or marijuana in combo with other drugs have nearly doubled from 33 citations in 2013 to 63 in 2017.
In Aurora, a suburb of Denver, same stuff; marijuana DUI numbers doubled.
The Colorado State Patrol says marijuana DUI numbers used to represent 12 percent of all DUIs in 2014. Three years later they represented 15 percent.
It's safe to say more people are driving while high in Colorado after prohibition or police are stepping up their game everywhere.
How the psychoactive drug in marijuana, called Delta-9 tetrahydrocannibinol or THC, affects crashes is a slightly more complicated story.
Colorado's legal limit for marijuana DUI, kind of like .08 for alcohol, is 5 nanograms per milliliter of THC.
Now the number of deaths on the road involving a driver over that limit almost cut in half from 2016 to 2017.
However, the same report found the number of deaths that occurred from drivers who tested positive for cannabinoids all together, meaning the driver had used marijuana some time in the past but wasn't high at the time, that number nearly tripled over four years.
Alcohol remains the most deadly drug on Colorado roads, but marijuana's problems behind the wheel have grown.
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