Teens on the road under the influence
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Data from a national survey of high school seniors indicates many have been driving after smoking marijuana – or as a passenger with a driver who was.
The Monitoring the Future project, which surveyed over 2,000 seniors in 2011, found 12 percent of seniors drove after smoking marijuana, and 20 percent rode with such a driver, in the two weeks before they took the survey. At the University of Michigan, researcher Patrick O’Malley says the percentages rose as acceptance of marijuana rose:
“Way too many teens are putting themselves in real danger. The evidence is very clear that driving after smoking marijuana is a dangerous behavior.”
The study in the American Journal of Public Health was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
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HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.