Close to Home: Keeping streets safe in a post-Prop. 64 world

California voters have spoken and have approved Proposition 64, allowing the recreational use of marijuana for adults over the age of 21. There is no doubt this proposition will expand the economic opportunity for those who supported its passage, but whether the tax revenue generated will cover the potential societal costs remains to be seen.

UC San Francisco prepared an exhaustive analysis and its conclusion was “the Adult Use of Marijuana Act will create a huge new business fraught with health hazards yet provide the barest minimal public health protections that are unlikely to prevent public health harms.”

As the marijuana industry claims, sales in California currently total close to $3 billion, and the industry anticipates they will grow that market to more than $6 billion as new growing, distribution and marketing schemes are put in place.

Only time will reveal the environmental, public health, homelessness and addiction impacts on our state. But there is one problem we know from experience in states which have made marijuana available for recreational purposes - traffic safety. This is something that impacts every resident of this state whether a motorist, a cyclist or a pedestrian.

Traffic safety consequences are particularly alarming considering evidence in Colorado that the number of marijuana- related traffic deaths increased 48 percent in the three years since marijuana was approved for recreational use. When you consider that California's population is seven times that of Colorado, their problem will pale in comparison to what is likely to occur here.

California already has a growing drugged-driving problem. In 2014, more than 38 percent of drivers in fatal accidents tested positive for drugs. Roadside surveys conducted in California by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration clearly identified marijuana as the predominant drug of choice by those who use drugs and drive. Overwhelmingly, those who use marijuana do not believe it affects their ability to operate a vehicle.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that marijuana's negative impact on driving ability is based on scientific findings that show THC, the mind-altering component, affects areas of the brain that control the body's movement, balance, coordination, sensations and judgment. As marijuana usage doubles or triples, as is projected by the industry, there is little doubt that the resulting highway carnage could be significant.

The current absence of any evidentiary value of an established intoxicating level of THC, coupled with the impaired effect on driving ability, will subvert the judicial process resulting in THC-impaired drivers escaping criminal consequences for their actions, and possibly even civil filings, to the detriment of those victimized by these violations.

It is imperative therefore that the state and, ultimately, the federal government begin developing a standard for measuring marijuana intoxication to accurately identify those who drive under the influence of this drug. This will take some time, as evidenced by the years it took the state to ultimately develop the rules and regulations for medical marijuana, but we do not have the luxury of waiting years to accomplish this since we are all at risk.

As Maury Hannigan, the former commissioner of the California Highway Patrol, has stated in his various comments to the media around the state, “If you thought things couldn't get worse, be assured recreational marijuana will make it a lot worse, particularly on California highways.”

Sal Rosano is a former chief of police for the city of Santa Rosa and consultant to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. He also is on the board of directors for the California Police Chiefs Association.