This study compared the driving records of 106,214 persons arrested for drug offenses in 1989 with 41,493 comparison drivers drawn from the general driving population. The drug arrestees were grouped according to the six summary offense categories used by the Department of Justice (DOJ), which were felony narcotics, marijuana, dangerous drugs, and other drugs, and misdemeanour marijuana and other drugs. Time period examined were 1 year pre-arrest, 1 year post-arrest and 2 years post-arrest. Each drug arrestee group had significantly more traffic violations and total accidents than the control group, except for 2 year post-arrest accidents for the felony narcotics group. Measures of accident culpability showed drug arrestees to be more responsible for the accidents in which they were involved than was the general driving population. Individuals arrested for drug offenses clearly pose an elevated traffic safety risk. These findings provide a public safety justification for state and federal initiatives designed to institute driver licensing actions against drug offenders, and support for the implementation of Public Law 101-516 in California. (A)
Abstract