Andrew Mertins
Mar 13th 2025
(WLUK) -- New information is shedding light on how many people get behind the wheel of a vehicle shortly after consuming cannabis, better known as marijuana.
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AAA found in a survey that 84.8% of people who use cannabis drive the same day that they consume cannabis. 53% said they consumed it an hour or less before driving.
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"We know that cannabis is impairing -- maybe in different ways than alcohol -- and so that's a really alarming statistic," said Nick Jarmusz, director of public affairs for AAA.
It's also alarming to law enforcement.
"The dangerous part is if you consume marijuana an hour or less before you drive, you may consume that marijuana and feel fine, get in your car and you're half hour down the road and the effects start hitting you. Well, then what? Then you're at risk of causing a crash, someone crashing into you," said Cpl. Dylan Davis, community resource officer for the Grand Chute Police Department.
More than 19% of respondents said they believe their driving is much better after consuming cannabis.
Wisconsin has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to driving under the influence of substances like marijuana. State law says it is illegal to operate a motor vehicle with any detectable amount of a restricted controlled substance, like cannabis, in the blood.
Numerous addiction center resources say marijuana can be detected in your blood for typically 12 hours after the last time the substance was ingested.
"There's a lot of things that marijuana is going to affect. It's going to affect their reaction time, it's going to impair their judgement of distance. It's going to decrease their coordination," said Lawrence Nikodem, a clinical addictions counselor of more than 40 years.
Nikodem says depending on the test, cannabis can remain elsewhere, like your hair, for much longer periods of time -- sometimes months.
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The overall message from law enforcement and others is to not drive while high.
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