The following is a press release from the National Alliance to Stop Impaired Driving:
The National Alliance to Stop Impaired Driving unveiled today its State Laws Map, an interactive, online database updated in real-time and designed to empower users to navigate the cannabis- and DUI-law labyrinth across the U.S. at no cost. The effort is intended to address a current problem in which America’s cannabis and impaired driving laws vary by state and change seemingly by the day, making it difficult for regulators, businesses, health and safety advocates, individuals, and other entities to stay on top of the evolving cannabis and DUI legal landscape across the United States.
“Before our State Map was available, traffic safety advocates, criminal justice professionals and others had to spend hours sifting through random databases, state and federal legal codes and other resources scattered across the internet just to understand the cannabis DUI and underage consumption laws in a single state. Now they can access a snapshot of those complex laws in a few seconds at the click of a button,” said Darrin Grondel, Ph.D., NASID’s director and vice president of government relations and traffic safety at Responsibility.org.
Developed through the support of NASID members and a team of traffic safety experts, the tool now includes detailed and easy-to-use links to statutes, rules, policies, enacted bills, website pages, judicial decisions, and other sources of information related to alcohol DUI laws, cannabis DUI laws, and underage cannabis consumption laws. All information is organized by state and includes a snapshot of the laws plus links out to more information. Updates to the state laws and regulations are made on a continual basis.
“Traffic safety advocates and others invested in and dedicated to removing alcohol-, cannabis-, and multiple substance-impaired drivers from our nation’s roads must be able to keep pace with the ever-changing cannabis and DUI legal landscape,” said Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association and NASID’s board chair. “This mission-critical resource makes us better-able to do that.”
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) reported traffic deaths increased significantly in 2020, the highest number of deaths and the highest fatality rate on our nation’s roadways since 2007. According to the release of the annual Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data, traffic crashes, injuries, and vehicle miles travelled all declined, yet traffic crash fatalities increased by 6.8 percent and 38,824 people were killed on US roads — especially alarming are the 11,654 people killed in preventable drunk driving crashes — a 14 percent increase over 2019.
Risky drivers were a major factor in this rise in crash fatalities with 45 percent of drivers in passenger vehicles engaging in at least one of the following three behaviors: speeding, alcohol-impaired driving alone, or not wearing a seat belt alone. Four percent (or 1,638 drivers) were engaged in these three risky behaviors simultaneously. The USDOT data does not include drug-impaired driving numbers.
To learn more about NASID, visit www.NASID.org and view the State Laws Map here.
Complicated laws complicate justice. The poor pay the price, the rich go free. 90% of America’s laws are complex and should be trashed. Law should be simple, straight forward language that all can understand.