Marijuana nearly doubles the risk of collisions

link

(CNN Health article)

I didn't include the reader commentary at the link. Some support the conclusions here. Some say this is all a government plot to justify the war on drugs. It's pretty funny as there's an argument for whatever your particular angle is on this subject.

And water is found to be wet.

i'd still way rather ride with someone who was high than someone who was drunk if i had to choose. alcohol makes people think they're invincible. weed makes people slow.

No shit?

Bullshit.

Ah, King Brilliant did not fail to deliver!

Really? I'd stay away from both. Seems like they both cause people to do stupid things. Maybe different stupid things but stupid nonetheless.

Jesus!!

What total bullshit!! I guess me and most of my friends should have all been in car accidents.

Fuck this. I can roll a joint while driving.

Yeah, but I thought the thing about being high was you stayed in with your sugary and salty snacks.
Never heard of it being the "I know! Let's go for a ride! ", drug.

I have smoked marijuana in the past, and think it should be legal.

At the same time having experienced its effects I definitely think it should be illegal to drive while under the influence. Not just because of the strong effect it has by itself, because of the way it can multiply the effects of other drugs like alcohol. Being drunk and stoned at the same time is like nothing else I have ever experienced. Although to be fair it should be pointed out I am a bit of a square and have never done any drugs other than pot and alcohol.

This is the guy that fucks it up for the rest. He doesn't have the experience. Lots of 'new' drinkers get in trouble. Same with weed.

But after a while, its nothing.

Little side note. If you know a mug that gets totally bombed on weed....avoid him.

What kind, how much, how regular of a smoker, body type of the smoker, etc.

I have no problem with objectively measuring impairment. But to say that a 250lb man who's been smoking for 20 years is guilty of DUI because the two hits he took an hour ago would incapacitate a 115lb eighteen year old taking their first puff, that's just mindless prohibitionist douchebaggery.

Zero tolerance isn't going to work for this, and I'm highly skeptical of someone's account of their consumption being the final measure, or setting some arbitrary limit to the concentration in your bloodstream. If their reflexes and mental faculties check out OK, leave them the fuck alone. Then again, if that were the case they probably wouldn't be getting pulled over in the first place..

Yeah, someone has a pot-breathalyzer on his workbench ready to go, and the fascist laws are all ready to be passed.
Then, 20 years later, after they've made everyone fucking miserable, they'll reveal the study was all bullshit, but the intrusion won't ever go away.

testing is bullshit cuz you could have smoked a week ago and it will show up.

I have to think a field sobriety test where they ask you some questions, make you recite the alphabet, then have you do the "walk the line, close your eyes and touch your nose" routine, then have you repeat the answers you gave before, all that should be adequate.

When I used to smoke I had some primo shit that would make me damn near comatose! There was no freaking way I would get behind the wheel of a car after lighting up, I was that fucked up.

But that's also the beauty of pot over alcohol -- it doesn't impair your judgement. I was stoned, knew it, and took the appropriate course of action (i.e. not driving).

See, I don't get that argument.

If after prolonged use of weed you think it is nothing, then why are you using it?

That's the part of marijuana testing I don't really like, and think there should be lots of work into finding better ways of doing.

If someone has smoked up in the last few hours, I'm fine with saying no driving allowed.

But beyond that? Shouldn't be a problem.

Even that is going too far. The last few hours?

Make sure to tell it to the judge, mmmkay?

They won't.
Those private contracted jails need more "customers", to "remain viable in the industry".

Until better tests are developed, yeah.

There are plenty of smokers for whom having smoked even a couple of hours before won't be a problem.

However there are plenty of others who will still be unsafe to drive at that point.

It's the same as alcohol testing, here we have a quite low alcohol limit, 0.05, not because most people are unable to drive safely at that point, but because there are lots who are not. Without a reliable way to distinguish, the only fair way is to set the limit at the lowest common denominator unfortunately.

You mean the most palatable unfair way.

Explain why field sobriety tests aren't good enough. Are we establishing safety, or enforcing some arbitrary fucking standard?

Field sobriety tests are good enough if they are consistent and fair and aren't subject to the entirely arbitrary judgement of whichever cop you happen to get issuing them.

Well, maybe back in the day...........

Not if you have to go to the bathroom, too.

i can't speak for mewa, but to me.....it's not exactly nothing. it's just that when you are a new smoker it's a lot stronger of an effect. by the time you've been smoking weed damn near every day for many years, it's more like a xanex (sp?). it calms the nerves/relaxes and takes the edge off, but it's not going to make you drive like a crackhead or anything.

Twice as likely to be in a collision after marijuana use?

Well, sure, but that's only 'cause the dude was in a hurry to get some Twinkies and Dorito chips at the convenience store...

Simply untrue. Mr. Asbridge has never worked door at a bar.

THAT's what I meant.