Polis Introduces Legislation to Create Federal Guidelines to Prevent Marijuana-Impaired Driving Supported by Hickenlooper, Colorado District Attorneys' Council, Colorado Association of Police Chiefs

Press Release

Representative Jared Polis (CO-02) today introduced the Limiting Unsafe Cannabis-Impaired Driving (LUCID) Act, which would expand the federal definition of an impaired driver to include an individual who is cognitively or physically impaired by marijuana.

The LUCID Act would create incentives for states with legalized marijuana to enact laws prohibiting marijuana-impaired driving -- similar to the requirements that exist relative to drunk driving. It would also provide states with comprehensive guidance to help them prevent marijuana-impaired driving using measures that are both economically feasible and scientifically sound. The LUCID Act would not mandate a specific measurement that states must use to test for marijuana-impaired driving, but it would call on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to publish recommendations based on the most up-to-date scientific research.

The LUCID Act is also cosponsored by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07).

"As more and more states follow Colorado's lead by treating marijuana similar to alcohol, we must be vigilant in our efforts to stop impaired drivers from getting behind the wheel of a car," said Rep. Jared Polis. "The LUCID Act saves lives and ensures that states are implementing and enforcing laws to combat marijuana-impaired driving, and that state officials have the tools and knowledge to keep roads safe using strategies that are based on the most recent science."

"In Colorado, we've enacted strong standards to keep our roads safe from drivers under the influence of marijuana and to train law enforcement officials to identify impairment," said Governor John Hickenlooper. "The LUCID Act helps to ensure that, however a state decides to police or regulate marijuana, we all stay safe on the road."

"The Colorado District Attorneys' Council gladly expresses its support for the LUCID Act, because the Act aims to provide information desperately needed on how marijuana impairs an individual's physical and mental abilities in relationship to a person's ability to drive a motor vehicle safely," said the Colorado District Attorneys' Council. "The Act also provides much needed information on the effectiveness and accuracy of oral fluid testing, Standard Field Sobriety Tests, and poly drug use (information law enforcement needs to improve DUI investigations exponentially). States need this legislation to more effectively and efficiently combat major highway safety issues."

"The issue of impaired driving is a serious safety concern in communities across Colorado," said John Jackson, President of the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police. "The CACP believes LUCID offers prudent and necessary safety regulations and research which will assist law enforcement to better detect and enforce impaired driving on our state highways and roadways."

"As a youth substance abuse prevention organization in Colorado, Team Fort Collins is fully supportive of intelligent legislation that sets standards, creates funding incentives, and facilitates advances in technology aimed at combating marijuana impaired driving to protect the motoring public and communities," said Gordon R. Coombes, Executive Director of Team Fort Collins. "As attitudes toward cannabis change in the United States, it is more important than ever before that leaders and experts join together to create legislation and policy to limit negative consequences."

Specifically, the LUCID Act would:

· Update the federal definition of an impaired driver to include drivers who are physically or cognitively impaired by marijuana;

· Make a state's eligibility for certain federal highway funding contingent upon having in place a law prohibiting marijuana-impaired driving and methods for enforcing that law by determining drivers' cognitive or physical marijuana impairment, if the state has legalized recreational or medical marijuana; and

· Direct the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to conduct testing on the impact of marijuana use on driving and issue guidance to states on the most feasible and scientifically sound mechanisms for combating marijuana-impaired driving.

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