– As Florida voters consider legalizing marijuana in November, opponents paint a frightening picture of what could happen: an epidemic of impaired driving that will make the state’s roads more dangerous and deadly.

But the research from other states that have legalized pot is inconclusive, and supporters of Amendment 3 argue that treating the drug like alcohol — making it legal but regulated — will make Floridians safer.

Two of Florida’s largest and most influential law enforcement groups oppose the measure, convinced it will lead to more deaths on the road.

If they need an example, they can point to the horrific May accident in Ocala that killed eight farm workers. Their bus was hit by a truck driven by a man who told police he had been smoking marijuana oil and taking prescription drugs.

Paula Cobb, whose daughter was killed near the University of Central Florida by a driver police believe was under the influence of marijuana, said Florida will need a plan — and tougher penalties for those who smoke and get behind the wheel — if the election passes.

“We need to better enable our law enforcement and give them better tools, better training, stronger rules and guidance,” said Cobb, who lives in Columbia, South Carolina.

Her daughter, London Harrell, then a UCF senior, was struck by a hit-and-run driver while walking home in 2019 from The Knight’s Pub near campus. The driver, Yousuf Hasan, left Harrell dying in the street. Hasan, 30, failed a field sobriety test and a blood test detected the active ingredient in marijuana. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Cobb isn’t opposed to legalization, but she thinks states need to be prepared. In particular, she said educational campaigns are important to get the public on the dangers of marijuana and driving.

The amendment needs at least 60% support from Florida voters in the Nov. 5 election to legalize recreational marijuana. Several polls have shown Amendment 3 clears that threshold, though one from Florida Atlantic University found it short with 56% support.

Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana, and impaired driving has been a concern for policymakers. Minnesota launched a massive public education campaign to coincide with marijuana legalization warning of the dangers of smoking and driving and reiterating that driving while stoned is a crime. Colorado includes representatives from the marijuana industry on its DUI task force.

The Florida Highway Patrol has already highlighted the problem of marijuana-impaired driving with a “Drive Baked, Get Busted” campaign. The agency rolled out billboards, posters and video ads in 2018 in the wake of the state’s vote to legalize medical marijuana.

“Marijuana DUIs are hard to detect”

Finding and then successfully prosecuting marijuana-impaired drivers is not easy, said Joel Leppard, an Orlando DUI attorney.

“Marijuana DUIs are difficult to detect,” he said. “Cops are trained to spot drunk drivers, not stoned. The roadside drills they use are designed for alcohol, not marijuana. And the experts trained to recognize drug impairment — there aren’t many of them, so they rarely get involved in these cases .”

While breathalyzers for marijuana are under development, no reliable one is widely available. Florida and many other states have no standard limit for marijuana’s active ingredient in the blood, meaning there is no clear threshold for prosecution as there is with alcohol. Marijuana can also linger in the system for weeks, making it difficult to determine if someone was driving under the influence.

As marijuana becomes legal across the country, specialized officers known as drug recognition experts are in short supply.

Law enforcement agencies in Florida have 342 drug recognition experts, who are trained to detect drug-impaired drivers, according to the International Association of Chiefs of Police. That’s about one drug recognition expert per 66,000 Floridians.

The Florida Highway Patrol has 54, and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office has six drug recognition experts. But all county officers experience general fatigue from driving under the influence, said Michelle Guido, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office.

Orange County Sheriff John Mina is one of the law enforcement leaders concerned about legalization, issuing a statement that voters should consider the dangers of impaired driving. Florida Sheriffs Association and Florida Police Chiefs Association oppose Amendment 3.

Marijuana is already available through an unregulated street market, said Morgan Hill, a spokeswoman for Safe & Smart Florida, the group that supports Amendment 3, when asked about the issue of reckless driving.

“We expect adults to make responsible choices and believe that no one should drive under the influence of any substance,” she said. “We look forward to working with the Legislature to ensure that there is continued training and common sense regulation to support our law enforcement officers in identifying and stopping impaired driving of any kind.”

How dangerous is it to drive with stones?

Marijuana affects driving by slowing reaction times, impairing distance judgment and reducing coordination, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Guohua Li, a researcher at Columbia University, has studied whether legalizing marijuana leads to more fatal crashes.

I Drawing conclusions from crash statistics is complicated because traffic deaths in recent years have been affected by improved car safety features and ride-sharing services like Uber that make it easier for drunk people to avoid driving.

And studying marijuana-related driving deaths can be tricky because some drivers can test positive for the drug, even if they were smoking a week before the crash. In other cases, a driver may have used marijuana but also other drugs or alcohol, making it difficult to tease out the role of potency in a crash.

Road deaths declined consistently for 30 years, but progress has stalled over the past decade and went in the wrong direction in 2020 and 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Studies on the role of legalization of marijuana in this trend produced conflicting results, but Li said he believes legalization has led to more traffic deaths.

“More scientifically rigorous methods have shown that legalizing recreational cannabis is associated with a modest but statistically significant increase in fatal motor vehicle crashes,” he said.

Research has shown that marijuana is even more dangerous when mixed with alcohol, which is becoming more common with legalization, Li added.

However, legalization advocates note a study that found changes in traffic death rates for Washington and Colorado were not statistically different from those in similar states that did not legalize marijuana.

In 2023, marijuana was implicated in 190 traffic deaths in Florida, according to Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. It’s possible those cases involved multiple drugs because the state doesn’t provide statistics on crashes where only marijuana was used.

People need to think about the consequences of impaired driving can have on others, Cobb said.

Her daughter’s future looked bright, she said. Harrell, an event management major at UCF, had just finished a summer internship in Amsterdam. In addition to her studies, she helped raise money for sick children and cancer patients.

“He took her life,” Cobb said. “He took so much away from the world — the potential that she already realized and the greatness of the person that she was.”