Driver Was 54 Times Over Legal Limit For Marijuana: State Police

SHORELINE, WA - A Lynnwood man arrested after a hit-and-run along I-5 in Shoreline in May was later found to have had 54-times the legal limit of marijuana in his system, according to Washington State Patrol. The man was arrested on May 20 in Lynnwood about 20 minutes after he allegedly hit a vehicle and left the scene during the evening rush hour. The man appeared intoxicated when he was arrested, so state police got a warrant for a blood toxicology test.

The results of the test were delivered in July and showed the 53-year-old had 270 nanograms of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, a cannabinoid that causes intoxication) in his system. The legal limit in Washington state is 5 nanograms.

Voters in Washington state legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, and research has shown that marijuana-intoxicated drivers are increasingly responsible for car accidents. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety in 2016 released a report showing that traffic deaths where drivers were intoxicated on THC began increasing in mid-2013. The number of traffic deaths where drivers had THC in their system more than doubled between 2013 and 2014 from 49 to 106, AAA found.

But testing for THC in drivers is somewhat of an issue itself. Unlike alcohol, THC is fat soluble, making it hard to accurately measure in the bloodstream.

In Billings, Mont., resident Kent R. Jensen is challenging his state's 5-nanogram limit, calling it arbitrary. Jensen is facing a vehicular homicide charge in the 2016 death of a motorcyclist. Jensen is arguing that each person absorbs marijuana differently, and 5 nanograms is too low a threshold. He was found to have 19 nanograms in his system at the time of his crash.

Montana, Colorado, and Washington state all use the 5-nanogram standard, which is the highest among states that have instituted THC limits. Nevada and Ohio, for example, have set THC limits at 2 nanograms, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Complicating the matter, recreational marijuana products for sale in Washington state have varying levels of THC, and some contain CBD, which is another type of intoxicating cannabinoid (there 113 in total) found in marijuana.

“It would be great to be able to say, ‘If you smoke one joint, you’re okay, if you smoke two you’re impaired,’ but it’s not that simple,” social and epidemiological research scientist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health Dr. Robert Mann told the Toronto Globe and Mail in 2015. “When you have a bottle of beer, it says how much alcohol is in it – when you’re smoking cannabis, you don’t really know what you’re getting.”

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