(CNN)Driving while under the influence of marijuana and other drugs is on the rise in the

United States, and could be involved in a large number of fatal accidents, a new report
finds.

The percentage of drivers who tested positive for marijuana or illegal drugs rose from
12.4% in 2007 to 15.1% in 2013 and 2014, according to a report by the Governors
Highway Safety Association, an advocacy group that promotes traffic safety. The data
came from voluntary roadside surveys by the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, which collected blood and saliva samples from drivers.
The new report also noted that 38% of the people who died in automobile accidents in
2013 and who were tested had detectable levels of potentially impairing drugs, both
illegal and legal, in their system. That is nearly the same percentage as tested positive
for alcohol.
The most common drugs were marijuana (34.7%) and amphetamines (9.7%), a class of
stimulants that includes ADHD medications and nasal decongestants. The National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration data did not specify the type of amphetamine.
Fed study: Booze impact greater than pot on driving
"Alcohol-impaired driving is still a big deal, but we have paid more attention to it than to
drug-impaired driving and it's time to pay more attention to drug-impaired driving," said
James Hedlund, an independent researcher and author of the report, which describes the
problem of drug-impaired driving and makes state-level recommendations.
Although there has been less drunk driving over the last few decades, drugged driving
appears to be increasing, Hedlund said.
A couple obvious reasons for this rise could be that "marijuana use is increasing, driven in
parts by the states that legalized marijuana for medicinal and recreational use, and the
second is that prescription pain killer use has gone up substantially," Hedlund said.
Research suggests that the dangers of driving while intoxicated are irrefutable. Studies
have found that the crash risk is two times higher in drivers with a blood-alcohol
concentration (BAC) of 0.07 to 0.09, and it shoots up to four times higher in those with BAC
of 0.1.
While alcohol tends to make drivers go faster, marijuana slows their driving speed and their
reaction time, Reisfield said. And studies have found that amphetamines can make drivers
speed up and pay less attention to the road. "Impaired driving can manifest in dramatically
different ways, depending on the impairing drug," he said.
Currently, 15 states have zero tolerance laws for at least one potentially impairing drug.
There are 18 states with either zero tolerance laws for driving with marijuana or that set
limits on the legal level. Alaska and Oregon, which have decriminalized the recreational use
of marijuana, have no laws against driving while impaired by drugs.