Maine Doesn't Need OUI Standards For Marijuana

[Jacob Redmond]

Recently, the Maine Legislature has been discussing whether the government should set a certain standard in marijuana consumption that would allow authorities to arrest someone for driving under the influence, similar to the blood-alcohol level standard used to determine whether someone is driving under the influence of alcohol. Yesterday, the proposed standard of five parts per billion of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), also known as what affects the brain in marijuana, was put on hold. Opponents of the standard pointed to how determining the level of THC in blood is not an exact science, and that level seemed too arbitrary and required more testing.

So the "magical number" that determines a legal blood level of THC goes back to the drawing board, but this author does not believe Maine even needs to come up with a numerical standard. If a person pulled over is found to have marijuana, mainly THC, in their system, whether legally obtained or not, it should be considered driving under the influence. Because marijuana is a medical drug in Maine and OUIs involving marijuana now are low, using time and resources to create a standard based on a non-exact science will unnecessarily drain time and resources to create standards, and puts Maine drivers at risk of an increase of impaired drivers.

Some may argue that we have standards for driving under the influence with alcohol, so why not other substances like marijuana? The main reason why alcohol should have a certain standard for driving under the influence and not marijuana is because, in Maine, marijuana is purely a medical substance, whereas alcohol has legal recreational uses. If Maine sets a standard for intoxication for marijuana, then the State will need to set standards for all medications that affect motor skills. These medications come with warnings to not operate machinery because they affect motor functions, and that is exactly what the THC in marijuana does. Each of these medications comes with a certain chemical that causes the impairment, so the State will have to make standards for all of them if it creates a standard for something only legal for medical purposes. If Maine allowed recreational marijuana, which may be on the ballot in 2016, it would make more sense to create a standard to limit intoxication. For now, marijuana is only legally allowed for medicinal purposes, so creating a standard for that will force the government to spend time and resources to find standards for other chemicals, and increase traffic concerns by allowing people to have some level of impairment due to medication.

In addition to the multiple drugs that would require standards, it also appears as though arrests for being under the influence of marijuana are very few, most likely because any level of marijuana is under the influence for drivers, so this does not appear to be a large problem in Maine. Last year, there were roughly 3,600 arrests for OUIs involving alcohol. To get that same number in OUIs involving marijuana, the arrests must be counted all the way back to 2004. It is likely this large number gap is because alcohol does have a standard of intoxication, so people who drink and then want to drive guess at whether they are at that limit, when they are actually over the limit. With marijuana, any level is against the law, so less people take the risk. Creating a standard for marijuana intoxication will likely produce results similar to OUI arrests involving alcohol.

Maine does not need a standard of intoxication for OUIs involving marijuana because it will only drain resources in creating other standards, and will likely result in an increase in OUI arrests.

News Moderator: Jacob Redmond 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Hitchcock: Maine Doesn?t Need OUI Standards for Marijuana | The Maine Wire
Author: Nathan Strout
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[DrRootswell]

take their licenses. they don't even deserve to be citizens anyway if they smoke pot. Lock em up! Take their shit, and take their kids too!

 

[ticobird]

Okay, now I understand you DrRootswell. I read a similar comment of yours while reading a different article. Your views IMO are not welcome here. That is not the same as trying to muzzle your attempt to change opinion though. I defend your 1st Amendment rights just as I would for anyone else. You might as well save your time reading and commenting because I'd estimate that over 95% of the people visiting the 420 MAGAZINE ® website are most interested in changing the status quo with regard to marijuana and greatly lean toward legalizing the recreational consumption of it.

 

[mlang52]

Most likely this is sarcasm. Otherwise, don't feed the trolls! They are here, just, to get a rise out of people by making their statements, filled with ignorance! I would much rather have a cannabis user living next door than I would a mean drunk, or a person that DrRootswell is trying to portray!! The, limited, research seems to point out that most cannabis users are just as safe behind the wheel as anyone else, and much safer than people that blow a .08 on the cop's "peace pipe"! I still do not condone or encourage driving while smoking cannabis. It is just such a non-issue, for those of us in the know.

 

[DrRootswell]

Most likely this is sarcasm. Otherwise, don't feed the trolls! They are here, just, to get a rise out of people by making their statements, filled with ignorance! I would much rather have a cannabis user living next door than I would a mean drunk, or a person that DrRootswell is trying to portray!! The, limited, research seems to point out that most cannabis users are just as safe behind the wheel as anyone else, and much safer than people that blow a .08 on the cop's "peace pipe"! I still do not condone or encourage driving while smoking cannabis. It is just such a non-issue, for those of us in the know.

you is korrect. I am sick to death about the blatant hypocracy in Amerika. The 4th Amendment has become a cruel joke. It is a pious pronouncement a form of words that is absolutely worthless if you need it but if you need it it is because you are a criminal that has no rights. you are observant. Your lawyer will sell you out and the cops all lie it is called in cop jargon testilying.

 

[DrRootswell]

Okay, now I understand you DrRootswell. I read a similar comment of yours while reading a different article. Your views IMO are not welcome here. That is not the same as trying to muzzle your attempt to change opinion though. I defend your 1st Amendment rights just as I would for anyone else. You might as well save your time reading and commenting because I'd estimate that over 95% of the people visiting the 420 MAGAZINE ® website are most interested in changing the status quo with regard to marijuana and greatly lean toward legalizing the recreational consumption of it.

The recreational thing will not happen in your lifetime, and as far as "medical" goes, ask the people of Hawaii who have been waiting 15 years for the regulatory arm to be set up to put " the will of the people " into operation. 20 years in Louisiana!! Same with most other " medical" states. Citizens " vote" the administrators just refuse to implement. We are an occupied country and jerks like the Koch Brothers and that Jewish guy who looks like an orangutan, Sheldon something or other will decide our next president. We do not have elections, we have auctions! The truth is, we are not citizens, we are subjects, and they can do and justify whatever they want to do to us. The 4th amendment is dead dead dead. If you do not believe me, try to avail yourself of it. Call the cops on yourself. You will find out it is dead dead dead. The Supreme Court we have is full of intellectually dishonest people who are now howling about the " enormous social costs" that happen when someone avails themselves of the protections the 4th amendment provides and these Supreme Court justices do the most amazing legal and intellectual gyrations, contortions, and gymnastics to make " pious pronouncements" about the 4th amendment while carving out another exception to why the evidence should not be suppressed. We live in double speak double think land of George Orwell's 1984. The 4th amendment is but an anachronism, a worthless useless " form of words " now and it is ALL OUR OWN FAULT! We put these right wing republicans into Presidential Office over last 30 years who put up such antiamerican justices such as Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Alito, and Thomas onto the Court. A president can last only 4 years, but these fuckers can persist over a couple generations! That is one reason the next election is SO VERY IMPORTANT. MAKE your voices heard. Give up the financial cost of a single joint to a candidate. Do SOMETHING just don't sit and moan around your kitchen table. VOTE> ASSEMBLE> Do Something. You will get more of what you are now getting by doing nothing!