SEATTLE — A report from AAA shows an alarming spike in the number of drivers involved in fatal crashes in the state of Washington who tested positive for marijuana.
Voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2012 and it went on sale in state-licensed stores in the middle of 2014.
AAA researchers say the percentage of Washington drivers involved in fatal crashes who had recently used pot more than doubled, going from 8 percent in 2013 to 17 percent in 2014.
Rob Sharpe of the Washington State Patrol told KIRO 7 the increase could be a sign of increased pot use, or of increased awareness among officers.
AAA says the numbers should serve as a case study for the more than 20 states currently considering legalizing marijuana.
The study also reveals there's no scientific evidence to determine when someone is too high to drive after smoking marijuana.
The numbers don't show if drivers were actually impaired at the time of the crash, only that they tested positive for THC, which can stay in your system for weeks.
Read the full study at this link.
KIRO 7 News talked to the mother of a young man killed by a driver high on marijuana.
Blake Gaston had just left a Bellevue restaurant where he had had dinner with his family, when a driver high on marijuana slammed into his motorcycle.
"Heard the crash and after about a second I realized my son had been hit," said Mary Gaston.
From 50 feet away, she ran to her son.
"Within a minute of having said goodbye, he had died," Gaston said.
Blake's death in 2013, at age 23, is part of a growing trend, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, which on Tuesday released a report about the prevalence of marijuana in fatal crashes.
"It's quite alarming," said Jennifer Cook of AAA Washington.
Mary Gaston says a state that leads on marijuana legalization should also start leading on research and education about the effects of marijuana.
"We understand that I can have a glass of wine and be OK to drive but if I have two glasses of wine I don't drive. There is not that same amount of knowledge when it comes to pot," Gaston said.
"Until we figure that out, other families can go through what my family has been through."
KIRO 7 conducted an experiment the year pot was legalized.
On a safe driving course, with help from the State Patrol, we watched some drivers' abilities diminish after they smoked a particular amount of pot, while others had to smoke much more before they were noticeably impaired.
The recent AAA study concluded that, unlike with alcohol, there's no scientific evidence that shows people become impaired when they have a specific level of marijuana in their system, which would make designating a specific blood-content enforcement level fairly arbitrary.