Cannabis-impaired driving issues and trends heading into 2021
Traffic Safety Pulse News
The start of a new year is a time to reflect on where we’ve been and focus on where we’re going. For CDOT, this means looking at the state of road safety, including trends and priorities, as we begin a new year and continue working toward our goal of zero deaths on Colorado roadways. In looking back on 2020, Colorado saw several trends in terms of marijuana and impaired driving – some unique to our state and some consistent with the rest of the country.
The Colorado cannabis industry had a record-breaking year in sales in 2020, with dispensaries reporting an influx of first-time customers. The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have played a significant role in this increase as more and more Coloradans turned to cannabis in an effort to cope with the public health emergency, and dispensaries were declared essential business amid stay-at-home orders early on in the pandemic.