News reports are swirling about a ballot initiative given approval to move forward that would legalize marijuana in California.  Organizers are now seeking signatures to qualify it for inclusion in a 2012 statewide election. The initiative is being called the “Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act.” It would be a sweeping, statewide legalization of marijuana for those over 21. Cultivation, transportation, wholesale and retail sale, and use of marijuana would be regulated in a manner similar to wine under this new law.

The language of the initiative can be read here. A first reading raises many questions for those interested in public health and AOD abuse prevention on college campuses.  Here are two of those questions:

How does this law affect marijuana impaired driving?

On the one hand, it does not change any current law regarding marijuana impaired driving. However, there are a number of consequences of the law that could be expected to exacerbate the current (and growing; O’Malley & Johnston, 2003, 2007) problem. First it offers no new tools for enforcement, such as a per se THC limit for drivers. While the authors of the proposition see a corollary to wine and the alcohol content of drivers is strictly regulated, there is nothing offered here for marijuana levels. There is now compelling research that suggests a 7 ng/ml blood THC level is a conservative per se limit to set (Grotenhermen et al., 2007). But this act does not suggest a limit. Indeed, because marijuana is currently illegal, the current limit is often set de facto at zero. Lifting this zero tolerance approach without setting a new limit would mean that marijuana impaired driving enforcement would be nearly impossible. Only extremely impaired drivers could be prosecuted, and then only when the impairment is directly observed. For instance, a severely injured driver cannot always perform a roadside sobriety test to screen for intoxication making their conviction using blood tests alone problematic.

Second, it appears that on-premise sale of marijuana (such as at restaurants and bars that sell wine) would be explicitly permitted. Given that the recommendation is that anyone who has used marijuana should wait 3 hours before driving (Grotenhermen et al., 2007), it is difficult to imagine that patrons of such establishments would abide by this advice. Thus, a slew of newly impaired drivers may flow from hospitality districts already choked with drunk drivers. Further, the mixing of marijuana and alcohol is known to create substantially greater crash risk, meaning that even patrons who believe that they are being responsible by partaking in only small amounts of each, may in fact pose a great risk to themselves and others when they get on the road (Robbe, 1998).

How will this law affect State Universities?

Clearly the lawyers will need to answer this, but a section of the proposition is potentially problematic. Section 5 says that all state employees are prohibited from abiding “by any federal laws or regulations that are in conflict with this Act.” Given that the Drug Free Schools and Community Act requires that colleges and universities prohibit the use of marijuana, and that they agree to enforce the law, it would appear that the CSU, UC and community college systems would be put in a position of violating one or the other of these laws. The Federal act places any institution in violation at risk of losing all federal aid and funds. Thus, if the proposition is successful, the State’s higher education system stands to lose a substantial amount of federal support.

The proposition also appears to prohibit zoning restrictions that would buffer any school, either K-12 or higher education, from sales, use or possession. The act would appear to bode well for burgeoning marijuana sales zones adjacent to campuses.

It will be important to keep our eye out for legal interpretations of the act. It may be that additional questions and foreseeable consequences arise from its language. Stay tuned....

References

Grotenhermen, F., Leson, G., Berghaus, G., Drummer, O. H., Krüger, H.-P., Longo, M., Moskowitz, H., et al. (2007). Developing limits for driving under cannabis. Addiction, 102(12), 1910-1917.

O’Malley, P. M., & Johnston, L. D. (2003). Unsafe driving by high school seniors: National trends from 1976 to 2001 in ticket and accidents after use of alcohol, marijuana and other illegal drugs. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 64(3), 305-312.

O’Malley, P. M., & Johnston, L. D. (2007). Drugs and driving by American high school seniors, 2001-2006. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 68(6), 834-842.

Robbe, H. (1998). Marijuana’s impairing effects on driving are moderate when taken alone but severe when combined with alcohol. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, Drugs and Driving, 13(Suppl 2), S70-S78.