Previous studies have found 1 in 6 college students reported driving under the influence of a substance other than alcohol in the past year. A recent study examined associations among college student beliefs about driving under the influence of marijuana, beliefs about driving under the influence of alcohol, behaviors associated with driving under the influence of marijuana, and marijuana and alcohol use. The researchers administered an online survey to 280 U.S. undergraduate students to measure these constructs. 39.9% of respondents reported smoking marijuana at least once and 19.6% reported they had driven within two hours of smoking marijuana in the past year. 17.8% of respondents believed, in general, using marijuana would not affect a person’s driving at all or would make driving slightly harder; yet, 80.8% of respondents believed smoking marijuana within one hour of driving would make a person much more likely or somewhat more likely to cause an accident. Overall, 93.2% of respondents believed it was completely unacceptable for a person to drive under the influence of alcohol, compared to only 46.6% for marijuana. Respondents who had never used marijuana were significantly more likely to believe driving after smoking marijuana was just as dangerous as driving after drinking alcohol and driving within one hour of smoking marijuana were unacceptable behaviors.
Take away: In this sample, 1 in 5 college students had driven within one hour of smoking marijuana in the past year. Driving under the influence of marijuana may be much more acceptable to college students than driving under the influence of alcohol; public health campaigns are likely needed to change this belief.