The driver in the deadly Fremont crash was arrested for allegedly driving while high.

The California Highway Patrol tells KRON4 compared to last year, marijuana arrests in the Bay Area will be up 70 percent by the end of this year.

“We know the law is over 21 to use recreational marijuana but driving under the influence is not. Never has been. Never will be,” CHP Officer Brandon Correia said.

KRON4 got new numbers from the CHP on the number of people arrested driving while high.

This year, during January, February, and March across the nine Bay Area counties, there have been 87 marijuana-related DUI arrests. That is compared to 190 for all of last year.

For arrests with marijuana and alcohol combined for the same period of time, there were 60 arrests this year versus 183 for all of 2017.

At this rate, the CHP believes marijuana arrests in the Bay Area will be up 70 percent by the end of this year.

“Utterly reckless and irresponsible,” Officer Correia said.

For the CHP, one arrest for driving high is one too many.

Now, 90 percent of officers are trained to spot the signs of a person who is driving while under the influence of drugs.

“The prevention and prosecution of marijuana-impaired driving, it shouldn’t be incumbent only on CHP, it should be a priority for our community,” Officer Correia said.

Also worth noting, this year for the first time, the CHP started keeping track of how many times officers found marijuana paraphernalia in cars during traffic stops–which is not legal.

The number this year is just over 3,700 times.

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