NYS Legislature should pass bill to stop drugged driving

Ever smell weed when you’re driving? You’re not alone.

Since New York embraced legalizing cannabis, the prolific scent of marijuana wafts down our highways and sidewalks. Are our roads now more dangerous? The answer is a resounding "yes," now that motorists have a new intoxicant of choice.

The latest installment of Newsday’s ongoing series, Dangerous Roads, well documents the problem. In 2023, a "drug-involved driver" was a factor in 24% of fatal crashes on Long Island, higher than the state average, and 7 percentage points higher than when marijuana sales were illegal.

Those statistics demand that state lawmakers pass the Deadly Driving Bill to expand the powers of trained law enforcement officials when dealing with suspected drugged drivers. In the waning days of this year's session, there's still time to act on a bill that has many sponsors and will make our streets and highways safer.

Republican Assemb. Keith Brown, of Northport, supports the bill that would expand the list of substances with which a driver could be charged for driving while under the influence. "This is a good bill. It will save lives," he told Newsday’s editorial board.

Detractors, however, say the bill would wrongly lead to arrests of people taking prescription medications or even drinking coffee and that it needs adjustments to avoid years of courtroom delays. This sounds like the usual response from some in the Democratic majority habitually opposed to any proposal to stiffen the penal code. The bill simply expands the definition of controlled substances drivers are banned from using to include those that impair "physical or mental abilities."

Right now, when a driver high on any drug other than booze causes an accident without serious injuries, simply declining a law enforcement official’s request to submit to a blood, urine or other chemical test gets them off the hook, regardless of criminality.

Driving drunk is treated more seriously and can induce any number of law enforcement tests to serve as a basis for prosecution. The Newsday report found that the proportion of drivers who refused to take a test after being pulled over doubled over five years, to around a fifth in 2022, one year after recreational marijuana was legalized. This serious disconnect between law and law enforcement must be immediately rectified — for the safety of us all.

Since legalization, some people seem to think they can whip down the highway high on their way. Families of those killed on the roads disagree, and so do we. If a driver under the influence of a substance causes a crash, does it matter what the driver was using if it helped cause the wreck? Driving while impaired is a deadly and immense problem across the country, and here on Long Island.

New York drivers shouldn’t have to feel and smell like they’re in a teen stoner movie. Changing the law is an important step in making Long Island’s roads safer.