Most (80%) Canadians Believe Impaired Driving by Alcohol or Marijuana Should Be Treated Equally under the Law

Toronto, ON – Most (80%) Canadians ‘agree’ (60% strongly/20% somewhat) that ‘driving while impaired by alcohol or by marijuana should be treated equally under the law’, according to a new Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of Global News. But the data reveals that Canadians aren’t entirely confident that there are appropriate rules and procedures in place to detect drivers who are impaired by marijuana, and many take a more relaxed attitude towards driving while high on marijuana than driving while drunk.

four in ten (42%) Canadians ‘agree’ (13% strongly/29% somewhat) that the ‘government has adequately considered the impact of legalizing marijuana on road safety’. Conversely, a majority (58%) ‘disagrees’ (29% strongly/29% somewhat) that the impact of legalizing marijuana on road safety has been adequately considered. Moreover, eight in ten (82%) ‘agree’ (58% strongly/23% somewhat) that ‘before making marijuana legal, there needs to be a reliable system across Canada for detecting drivers who are high'.

While eight in ten (80%) believe that driving impaired by alcohol and marijuana should be treated equally under the law, some Canadians have differing attitudes about the two. For example, two in ten (19%) Canadians do not consider driving high while on marijuana to be impaired driving, compared to just one in ten (12%) Canadians who do not consider driving while drunk to be impaired driving. One in three (33%) Millennials do not consider driving while high on marijuana to constitute impaired driving.

Similarly, one quarter (25%) of Canadians ‘agree’ (8% strongly/17% somewhat) that driving while high on marijuana is more acceptable to them than driving drunk, including 32% of men and 40% of Millennials aged 18-34. In fact, nearly half (47%) of those who admit to having driven while high say it’s more acceptable than driving while drunk. Further, two in ten (18%) Canadians ‘agree’ (5% strongly/13% somewhat) that it’s okay to smoke marijuana and then drive.

While eight in ten (83%) ‘agree’ (54% strongly/29% somewhat) that they’re personally concerned about the issue of drunk driving, only seven in ten (71%) ‘agree’ (42% strongly/29% somewhat) that they’re personally concerned about the issue of driving while high on marijuana.

One in Ten (10%) Canadians Admits to Having Driven while High

The poll has revealed that one in ten (10%) Canadians admits to having driven a vehicle while they were high enough on marijuana that they could have been considered legally impaired. Men (15%) are much more likely than women (5%) to say this is the case, as are those aged 18-34 (17%) compared to those aged 35-54 (12%) or 55+ (3%).

Nearly two in ten (15%) Canadians ‘agree’ (6% strongly/9% somewhat) that they feel comfortable driving after consuming marijuana, even if they might be considered high, rising to 22% among men and 28% among Millennials. This belief is similar to the 16% of Canadians who ‘agree’ (4% strongly/12% somewhat) that they feel comfortable driving after a few drinks, even though they might be over the legal limit.

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between December 16 and 19, 2016, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,000 Canadians from Ipsos' online panel was interviewed online. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval.  In this case, the poll is accurate to within +/ - 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Sean Simpson
Vice President
(416) 324-2002
Ipsos Public Affairs
[email protected]

About Ipsos

Ipsos ranks third in the global research industry. With a strong presence in 87 countries, Ipsos employs more than 16,000 people and has the ability to conduct research programs in more than 100 countries. Founded in France in 1975, Ipsos is controlled and managed by research professionals. They have built a solid Group around a multi-specialist positioning-- Media and advertising research; Marketing research; Client and employee relationship management; Opinion & social research; Mobile, Online, Offline data collection and delivery. Ipsos has been listed on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1999. www.ipsos.com