Efforts to stop weed-impaired driving are ignoring the traffic risk posed by a stoned dad or grandpa, a new study says.
About 1 out of 5 (20%) people 50 and older who use weed reported they'd driven while high at least once during the past year, researchers report in the January 2026 issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
Further, middle-aged adults and seniors who use cannabis daily or nearly daily are three times as likely to get behind the wheel after toking, compared with those who use weed rarely, the study found.
"So much of the effort to reduce 'driving while high' through awareness campaigns has focused on young people, but our findings show this is a cross-generational issue," lead researcher Erin Bonar said in a news release. She's a professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor.
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