19 percent of teens say they have driven after smoking marijuana

(Reuters)

In a new survey, 19 percent of teenagers said they have driven under the influence of marijuana, the Baltimore Sun reported.

The survey, conducted by Liberty Mutual Insurance and Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), found that more teens are driving after smoking weed than after drinking alcohol.  According to the Sun, only 13 percent of teens said they have driven after drinking.

Furthermore, more than one-third of the teenagers said they didn’t believe being high affected their driving, the newspaper said.

Researchers warned this was a ‘dangerous’ misconception rising among teens.

“Marijuana affects memory, judgment, and perception and can lead to poor decisions when a teen under the influence of this or other drugs gets behind the wheel of a car,” said Stephen Wallace, senior advisor for policy, research, and education at SADD.  “What keeps me up at night is that this data reflects a dangerous trend toward the acceptance of marijuana and other substances compared to our study of teens conducted just two years ago.”

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