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FREDERICTON – A six-year analysis of more than 10,000 Canadian drivers involved in motor vehicle collisions suggests cannabis has overtaken alcohol as the most common impairing substance detected by blood tests after a crash.
The 2024 National Drugged Driving Study, produced by the University of British Columbia, says researchers analyzed blood samples from drivers in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador between 2018 and 2023.
They found that 54 percent of these injured drivers tested positive for at least one substance that impaired them, and among that group 16.6 percent had cannabis in their bloodstream while 16 percent had alcohol.
“Cannabis-impaired driving appears to be an emerging problem in Canada and may now be more common than alcohol-impaired driving,” the study says.
“However, given the very high risk of an alcohol-related crash, and the fact that most ‘cannabis positive’ drivers have low levels of THC (the active substance in cannabis), it can be concluded that driving after drinking remains a bigger problem in Canada. “
The study also found that Atlantic Canada led the country in the proportion of injured drivers more likely to have used weed.
Of the 624 injured drivers from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador tested during the study period, 26 percent of drivers tested positive for cannabis and 22 percent tested positive for alcohol. Overall, 70 per cent tested positive for drugs or alcohol, which was also higher than the national average.
Lead author Dr. Jeff Brubacher, who is with the department of emergency medicine at the University of British Columbia, said that the overall number of impaired driving cases in Atlantic Canada was something that stood out to him.
“That was the most impressive thing,” he said. “I would say it’s a problem across the country, but it seems to be worse in Atlantic Canada.”
Researchers in British Columbia have been studying cannabis in blood alcohol since 2012, and it is clear that the number of drivers with weed in their system has increased since legalization in 2018, he said.
“I would still say that good, old-fashioned alcohol is probably still the biggest single-substance problem,” Brubacher said. “But a new problem is the combination of alcohol and cannabis, and that’s a bad combination.”
The study said cannabis intoxication causes attention deficits, slows reaction time and impairs tasks such as ability tracking – such as staying within a lane – or monitoring the speed from a meter. However, he says regular cannabis users may develop a tolerance to some of its effects.
“The effect of alcohol on driving and road safety is well studied and understood,” the study says. “Unlike alcohol, it is often not possible to predict how driving will be affected at different drug-blood-alcohol concentrations.”
The target audience for this study, Brubacher said, includes emergency room doctors, public health officials, police and organizations that help spread awareness about safe driving.
“Just to warn people of the risks of driving while impaired, of the risks of combining alcohol and cannabis,” he said. “I really hope that we can continue to collect this kind of data, and I hope … that police can use it to guide enforcement, and injury prevention that people can use for public education.”
This report was first published by The Canadian Press on June 24, 2024.
Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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