The Most Drug-Positive Drivers in America All Drive the Same Dead Buick

According to the toxicology reports, and there are 490,736 of them, the most drug-positive drivers in fatal crashes in America share one very specific ride: the Buick Verano, a compact sedan GM mercy-killed after the 2017 model year.^[2] Out of 307 models with serious volume in the federal database, Verano drivers posted the highest drug-positive rate in fatal crashes: 13.1 percent, at 1.59 times the odds of the 8.7 percent fleet average.^[1]

Only one nameplate scores higher, the Buick Park Avenue at 16.6 percent, and it does so on 259 drivers against the Verano’s 397, a gap the confidence intervals swallow whole. Verano’s 95 percent interval runs 9.8 to 16.4 percent, so call it a tie for first. Either way, Buick, the brand that sells quiet luxury to sensible adults, holds the top two slots in the entire drug-positive standings. Regal drivers sit at 6.8 percent and LaCrosse at 8.4, both at or below average, so this is no brand-wide curse, just a two-model pileup.

Now the part that should embarrass everyone involved. Underneath, the Verano rides on GM’s Delta II platform, which makes it mechanically a Chevrolet Cruze wearing a nicer suit and a markup it never deserved. Cruze drivers in fatal crashes test drug-positive at 8.9 percent; Verano drivers, 13.1. Same bones, same era, same used-car lots, and a 4.2-point gap that clears statistical significance (z = 2.40, p < 0.05). Somehow the badge on the trunk predicts the toxicology report better than the platform underneath it. Cars do not do drugs; buyers do, and Buick’s failed youth experiment attracted exactly the buyers its marketing department pretended not to see.

None of this is the car’s fault, which is the bleakest part: five NHTSA stars and IIHS Good in the moderate overlap, side, and roof tests, a safe car full of unsafe decisions.^[3] Alcohol barely registers as a differentiator here: 16.4 percent positive against a 15.1 percent fleet average. Drugs are the Verano’s specific problem, in a country where NHTSA’s own testing found nearly 69 percent of killed drivers positive for at least one drug category, and where the agency now runs “Drive High, Get a DUI” beside its drunk-driving campaign because cannabis has no equivalent of the 0.08 line.^[4][5]

So what do you do with this? If you are shopping the bottom of the used market, know that a $7,000 Verano puts you in the most drug-positive owner pool in America, which argues for buying the newest, safest-rated cheap sedan you can afford, then driving like everyone around you is impaired, because statistically some of them are. And if you are driving anything at all this weekend, the actionable part is older than the data: drug impairment has no roadside number, no breathalyzer equivalent, just an officer’s judgment and a lab weeks later, so the only safe threshold is zero.^[6] Designate the sober driver before the first round, not after. And while you are at it, run your VIN through NHTSA’s recall database; the Verano had its own campaigns and your car probably does too.^[7]

Fine print, because toxicology data always has some. A positive screen does not mean impaired at the moment of the crash; THC metabolites linger for days or weeks, and FARS records any positive, which is exactly why NHTSA admits there is no per-se cannabis threshold.^[6] Testing is not universal and varies by state, crash type, and whether the driver survived, so these rankings assume roughly comparable testing across models, an assumption with visible cracks. With 397 drivers the Verano’s exact rank is soft; the interval spans 9.8 to 16.4 percent. And the beater effect looms over everything: Veranos now trade around $5,000 to $9,000, and drug-positive rates may track vehicle value rather than the model, though the Cruze control, equally cheap and significantly cleaner, argues something model-specific is really happening.

Now the other side, at full strength: this could be a testing artifact wearing a car costume. If medical examiners test young men in cheap sedans more aggressively than minivan drivers, and cheap sedans concentrate exactly those drivers, then the Verano’s crown measures who gets tested, not who uses drugs. Maybe the Cruze gap reflects fleet and rental mix rather than behavior. Under that reading, the honest headline is “poor young men get drug-tested more,” which is sociology, not automotive journalism. No part of the data rules that out. What the data can say is this: among drivers who died in crashes and got tested, Verano drivers failed drug screens at the highest rate of any high-volume car in America, and no amount of badge engineering explains it away.

Sources & References

1. NHTSA, Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2014–2023. Rankings computed from FARS driver toxicology data: 307 models, 490,736 drivers. Verano: 52 drug-positive of 397 drivers (13.1%); fleet average 8.7%; odds ratio vs rest of fleet 1.59x (z = 2.6); Verano vs Chevrolet Cruze (277/3,129, 8.9%) difference z = 2.40, p < 0.05. nhtsa.gov · query tool: cdan.dot.gov
2. MotorTrend via Automotive News, “Buick Verano Canceled for U.S. after 2017.” motortrend.com · background: Wikipedia
3. MotorTrend, 2017 Buick Verano review: five-star NHTSA overall rating; IIHS Good in moderate overlap front, side, and roof strength. motortrend.com
4. Land Line Media reporting NHTSA drug-prevalence findings: nearly 69% of drivers killed tested positive for at least one drug category; alcohol 35.8%, cannabinoids 28%, opioids 15.3%. landline.media
5. NHTSA press release: annual “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over” enforcement campaign paired with “Drive High, Get a DUI” drug-impaired driving awareness. nhtsa.gov
6. TechTimes on NHTSA Labor Day crackdown: no reliable per-se THC concentration threshold; THC detectable long after psychoactive effects end; enforcement relies on Drug Recognition Experts. techtimes.com
7. NHTSA recalls database; check any VIN. nhtsa.gov

Related prior coverage: the beater-effect predecessor (old cheap cars, most impaired drivers) was reported in The Alero Beater Effect; the sober-vehicle mirror image in The 10 Soberest Vehicles in Fatal Crashes.