Big Marijuana lobbyists like to repeat the myth that weed never killed anyone, but tragic new data from the American College of Surgeons show that THC plays a major role in traffic deaths.

Researchers last week revealed a devastating report on years of traffic data from Ohio, showing that more than 40% of drivers killed in car crashes from 2019 through 2024 tested positive for high levels of THC.

That is, the “harmless,” “natural” drug proves deadly yet again.

This latest finding lines up with a parade of federal data showing that marijuana is increasingly killing and injuring America’s drivers and their passengers.

Consider a 2022 study from the National Traffic Safety Board: Its researchers found that marijuana was present in about one-third of all motorists arrested for impaired driving around the country.

That same year, another study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that more than 25% of all those killed or seriously injured in road accidents who tested positive for any drug tested positive for marijuana — a higher rate than that found for alcohol, at 23%. 

The NTSB and NHTSA numbers show the extent of the driving-while-high crisis.

Alarming figures from the Foundation for Traffic Safety show what’s animating it.

Earlier this year, its survey of 2,000 cannabis users found that almost 85% of them drive the same day they use marijuana — and 81% think using it either has no effect on their driving, or actually improves it.

Drill down to the state level, and the picture stays just as grim.

In Virginia, for example, some 17% of residents last year admitted to driving high multiple times in the past month, according to the state Cannabis Control Authority.

That’s almost one in five people acknowledging they regularly hit the road while stoned — while that same CCA data shows that 30% believe weed users are usually safe drivers.

A literally deadly misconception.

Data from Washington state shows that the portion of drivers involved in fatal collisions who tested positive for THC doubled after the state legalized weed — from about 9% on average in the five years before legalization to 18% in the five years after legalization.

Colorado, a legal-weed pioneer, also saw the share of weed-related car-crash fatalities nearly double between 2013 and 2020 (legalization hit in 2014).

After weed went legal in Oregon, Alaska and California, car-crash deaths jumped by 22%, 20%, and 14% respectively.

When it comes to America’s roads, driving high has become the new driving drunk.

And it’s literally killing us.

A massive cultural taboo surrounds drunk driving in America, thanks in large part to the efforts of groups like MADD and their nationwide education and prevention campaigns.

This data tells us that marijuana legalization has eviscerated the taboo against smoking weed before getting behind the wheel.

Why?

Blame the marijuana industry’s slick, multimillion-dollar campaigns claiming its products are medically beneficial and perfectly harmless — just like Big Tobacco once did.

Only a few decades ago, the tobacco industry got caught paying doctors, dentists and scientists to say cigarettes were a boon to health.

Big Weed’s messaging flies in the face of everything we know about the drug’s physical and mental-health dangers.

Every month, it seems, a new study appears linking it to everything from deadly cardiac events to damaged female fertility to schizophrenia and other severe mental issues.

Witness, for example, its tragic connection to Robin Westman, the Minneapolis school mass-shooter, and to Jihad al-Shamie, the Manchester synagogue stabber.

As a country, we need to put the brakes on any move to normalize or legalize marijuana.

States rushed too far, too fast — and the federal government should certainly reject proposals to reschedule the drug or otherwise entrench the industry.

Indeed, Washington should be launching a robust awareness and prevention program aimed at waking every American up to the deadly dangers of driving high, especially for younger drivers.

The truth is this: Weed kills.

No matter how much industry propaganda may say otherwise.

Kevin Sabet is president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana and a former White House drug policy adviser.