Proposition 64 – the initiative that seeks to legalize recreational marijuana in California – would have a terrible impact on public safety in our state.
If it passes on Nov. 8, we can expect more innocent deaths on our highways due to drugged driving, significantly higher use of marijuana by our youth, and increased accidental ingestion of marijuana edibles by young children.
Locally on the Central Coast, we saw the devastating effects of marijuana-related driving on our highways in December of 2007, when a marijuana-drugged driver crashed into a CHP motorcycle officer and a man he had stopped on the shoulder of the 101 freeway between Carpinteria and Ventura.
The man pulled over for a minor traffic violation was killed, and the CHP officer was left paralyzed for life.
In Colorado, such marijuana-related traffic deaths increased by close to two-thirds (62 percent) in the first year following marijuana legalization in 2013, and by almost half (48 percent) in the three-year average following legalization.
Despite these grim statistics, Proposition 64’s special-interest proponents refused to include a scientific standard for marijuana intoxication, making it extremely hard for peace officers to keep impaired drivers off our highways.
A total of 252 people were killed in marijuana-related fatal traffic collisions in California in 2015.
If we extrapolate Colorado’s average increase of 48 percent each year over three years, that means we can expect more than 120 additional deaths on our highways, each year for the next three years, if Proposition 64 passes.
Is legal marijuana really worth an annual loss exceeding 120 lives?
Youth and children often obtain and use legally purchased alcohol from an unattended liquor cabinet, or cigarettes from a purse or dresser drawer. Such means of acquisition will frequently occur with marijuana as well if it is legalized here.
Children in Colorado are now using marijuana at much higher rates than before legalization. While nationally marijuana use by youth decreased 4 percent between 2013 and 2014, in Colorado it increased by 20 percent.
Several studies have also found significant rises in emergency room trips by young people following legalization in Colorado, many of them caused by the accidental ingestion by toddlers of edible marijuana that is contained in cookies, candy and other seemingly innocent-appearing treats.
A study in “JAMA Pediatrics” found “Colorado’s laws on labeling and child-resistant packaging have been unable to stop an increase of young people ending up in the emergency room after accidentally ingesting marijuana,” finding that the numbers increased significantly and at a higher rate than in the rest of the states.
The use and abuse of alcohol, prescription narcotics and illicit drugs already cause far too much havoc, tragedy and heartache in California. We don’t need these problems exacerbated by legalizing marijuana.
As Gov. Jerry Brown has said, “if there’s advertising and legitimacy, how many people can get stoned and still have a great state or great nation?”
Let’s not repeat Colorado’s mistake. Please help keep California safe by voting NO on Proposition 64.
Bill Brown is the sheriff and coroner of Santa Barbara County.