While marijuana decriminalization has profound implications for all highway safety, is of particular concern within the realm of professional drivers, as truck and bus crashes are often far deadlier than passenger vehicle crashes. As a result, the transportation industry and law enforcement have been tasked to manage education and enforcement in unison. Our panelists will discuss the consequences of marijuana use among drivers, the increased potential for crashes, initiatives for clear regulations and solutions for protecting our roadways.

Speakers

Lt. Stephen May, Sr. (Rowley Massachusetts PD retired) has 30 years of experience in the detection, identification and prosecution of drug and alcohol impaired drivers. He is a nationally certified Drug Recognition Expert and currently participates in a private sector marijuana research project at a major teaching hospital in Boston. For over 20 years May has trained and certified police officers across Massachusetts in impaired driving investigative procedures and techniques. He has been accepted and testified as an expert witness Massachusetts criminal courts. May has received a number of awards from MADD recognizing him as a leader in impaired driving education and enforcement. Since 2007 he has been active in legislative efforts to promote highway safety by working toward more effective impaired driving laws in Massachusetts.

May attended Northeastern University majoring in Transportation and Physical Distribution, and later graduated from Western New England with BS in Law Enforcement and MS in Criminal Justice Administration. Prior to entering law enforcement, he spent 10 years in operations management for several specialized carriers in Massachusetts.

May is the owner of Stephen W. May LLC located in Amesbury, MA providing reasonable suspicion, drug free workplace and drug related training to companies throughout the New England area.

Jennifer M. Whitehill, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She holds a PhD in Health Policy and Management from Johns Hopkins University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric injury prevention at the University of Washington. Her research is aimed at understanding and preventing injuries, especially among youth and young adults, with a focus on substance use (i.e. alcohol, cannabis, and other drugs) as a risk factor for injury. Currently, she is working to understand the impact of cannabis policy changes on injury risk factors and outcomes using a range of research methods that include survey research, analysis of large datasets, and qualitative methods. She has specific expertise in the area of cannabis impaired-driving and motor vehicle crashes. She has served as the principal investigator for research funded by the National Institutes of Health and recently served as a scientific leader for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Marijuana Baseline Health Study.

This safety roundtable will take place in the Guinness Room at Marcus Hall.