Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol and Marijuana: Beliefs and Behaviors, United States, 2013-2015
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Summary
This study examines the prevalence, beliefs, and behaviors regarding driving under the influence of alcohol and marijuana among U.S. drivers aged 18 and older between 2013 and 2015. Motivated by the high mortality rate of car crashes, the research aims to quantify self-reported impaired driving and analyze drivers’ perceptions of risk, legal knowledge, and support for countermeasures. The analysis relies on data from the AAA Foundation’s Traffic Safety Culture Index (TSCI), a nationally representative online survey of 6,612 respondents. The study specifically investigates the correlation between substance use, perceived crash risk, awareness of *per se* marijuana DUI laws, and attitudes toward legislative changes such as lowering the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit. The findings reveal that 14.0% of drivers reported driving with a BAC close to or over the legal limit in the past year, while 4.6% reported driving within an hour of using marijuana. Alcohol use was most prevalent among drivers aged 25–39, whereas marijuana use and subsequent impaired driving were highest among those aged 18–24. Male drivers were significantly more likely than females to engage in both types of impaired driving. Crucially, drivers who used marijuana or drove after use were significantly less likely to believe that marijuana increases crash risk; many believed it had no effect or even decreased risk. Conversely, 58.3% of all drivers correctly identified that marijuana use increases crash risk, but 31.8% were unsure. Awareness of *per se* marijuana DUI laws was low, with over half of drivers unaware if their state had such a law. However, drivers who believed their state lacked these laws were significantly more likely to report driving after marijuana use, suggesting perceived legality influences behavior more than actual law. Despite widespread impaired driving, social norms remained largely prohibitive: 97.9% of drivers deemed driving after excessive alcohol consumption unacceptable, and 91.7% viewed driving one hour after marijuana use as unacceptable. Nevertheless, support for stricter regulations was strong, with 82.9% supporting *per se* marijuana DUI laws and 63.6% supporting a lower BAC limit of 0.05. The study concludes that while public disapproval of impaired driving is high, a significant portion of drivers, particularly young males and marijuana users, underestimate the risks associated with cannabis-impaired driving. The disconnect between low legal awareness and high behavioral engagement suggests that enforcement and education regarding marijuana DUI laws may be ineffective due to public ignorance of their existence.
Key finding
From 2013–2015, an estimated 14.0% of U.S. drivers reported driving with a BAC close to or over the legal limit and 4.6% drove within one hour of using marijuana in the past year; marijuana users were far less likely to perceive increased crash risk from such use, and low awareness of per se marijuana laws meant self-reported marijuana-impaired driving tracked perceived legal status rather than actual state law.
Methodology
survey
Sample size: N=6,612 drivers (2013 TSCI, 2014 supplement, 2015 TSCI; weighted nationally representative panel)
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_aaa_foundation on 2026-05-23 (5 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | aaa_foundation | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 19 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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- Empirical Findings: observational prevalence