Police Pot Hype

[MsRedEye]

The police's assertions that marijuana is a major threat to road safety is not supported by the science or the numbers.

These "drugged-driving" laws were designed to let police profile the young, the poor, people of colour and people with non-regulation haircuts. I guess federally licensed medical marijuana users like myself should consider ourselves banned from driving for life, but the neighbour driving, gooned on antihistamines can relax.

Sounds fair.

Sure, pot can impair some people, but it doesn't impair every user, and it doesn't impair every time. What about cell phones, coffee, smokes, loud passengers, food in hand, medications, inexperience and plain old stupidity?

Canadians smoke more pot than any other country. We use the most potent pot and we admit to toking and driving more than any other country. Why are we not seeing four or even five times as many crashes as we are?

Like everything police say about marijuana - it is all just a lot of hype. This policy will clog our courts, saddle tens of thousands of Canadians with criminal records, and do nothing at all to improve road safety.

The public is being duped. This is just another scam to keep cops busy, lawyers rich, and jails full.


News Hawk: MsRedEye: http://www.420magazine.com/
Source: The Province
Author: Russell Barth, Nepean, Ont.
Copyright: 2008 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: The Province
Website: Police pot hype

[Dr. 215]

They will stop at nothing to keep this going, we must stop at nothing to get it right.

[wordsworm]

UK Study on Marijuana and Driving Again Shows That It Is Not A Significant Factor in Accidents. Should We Arrest People for Being Tired?
see post #6 in this thread.

Shows quite the contrary: people who smoke pot and drive are less likely to get in accidents than people who don't.

Honestly, I'd like to see the effects of caff*ine on drivers. I'm willing to bet people are more likely to get in accidents on that than anything. Anyone ever see the spider on drugs study done about 50 years ago? Showed that caff*ine was the worst, and L*D had the best effect. Truly bizarre reality is.

[Soniq420]

^^

That was a great read.

Nothing like data

Hope the prohibitionists see this - even though they'll never admit it's validity

[wordsworm]

For the most part, religion is the backbone of prohibition. As such, they don't even accept that the universe is filled with life on other planets, that the earth is more than 10,000 years old, and I could of course go on. My point is that since they ignore basic science in lieu of faith. Prohibition, to them, is the equivalent of the Tree of Knowledge. It's their forbidden fruit. Hence, the irrational effort to keep it illegal. Of course there's a minority of folks who still believe in G*d and aren't abashed about their dr*g use. As with all generalizations, there are always a few exceptions.

[User]

UK Study on Marijuana and Driving Again Shows That It Is Not A Significant Factor in Accidents. Should We Arrest People for Being Tired?

DON’T BE A DOPE If you’re going to smoke a joint, don’t drive home IT’S official: smoking dope makes you a worse driver. (MarijuanaNews note: As is all too common, the text of the article does not support the sensationalist header. In fact, this is not even a new story, in that the results were leaked months ago and reported here.) See UK Study Finds Marijuana Use Makes Drivers Safer. Now The Prohibitionists Can’t Hide the Study, So They Will Just Ignore It.

But cannabis has less effect on driving ability than alcohol, according to a study by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in Crowthorne, Berkshire. See Australian Prohibitionists Find It “Disturbing” that People Think Marijuana Less Dangerous Than Alcohol For Drivers. The Party Line More Important than Safe Driving.

The Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions asked the TRL Safety Department to investigate the effect of cannabis intoxication on driving ability. Cannabis is by far the most common illegal drug found in the bloodstream of road accident victims, and THC-the active ingredient in cannabis-can remain in the body for more than a month.

Barry Sexton and his colleagues at the TRL recruited 15 volunteers to complete driving tests while under the influence of low or high doses of cannabis, or no drug at all. The volunteers either smoked readyrolled cannabis joints or rolled their own with resin supplied under government licence. They were then put through their paces on a sophisticated driving simulator.

The researchers measured their accuracy at steering the car, known as “tracking ability”, and other psychomotor responses, such as hazard perception and braking responses. They took blood and saliva samples at regular intervals and also tested the subjects’ coordination, balance and timing.

The first thing the researchers noticed was that the subjects drove more slowly under the influence of dope, compensating for their intoxication by driving more cautiously.

Tracking ability was the only test criterion that was adversely affected: the volunteers found it very difficult to follow a figure-of-eight loop of road when given a high dose. (MarijuanaNews note: Don’t get really stoned and try to drive on a “figure-of-eight loop of road” on your way home.)

Reaction times to motorway hazards and performance on cognitive tests in the lab were not significantly affected. (MarijuanaNews note: These are the most important findings, and their implications go far beyond drving.)

Trials previously completed under similar test conditions at the TRL have shown that alcohol and tiredness have a more adverse effect on driving ability, affecting higher cognitive processes. (MarijuanaNews note: “Tiredness” is now blamed for causing 10% of all fatal UK accidents, compared with 6% for alcohol and 3% for drugs.) COLOR=”#ff0000″>

The results of the cannabis and driving study agree with similar research carried out in Australia, the US and Holland. See Australian Study Of 2,500 Injured Drivers Showed Those Who Used Marijuana Less Likely To Have Caused Accident Than Even Drug-Free Drivers – But How Do The Swedish Prohibitionists Report It? and 1994 Dutch Study On “Marijuana Use And Driving” In Real World Conditions and HREF=”http://www.marijuananews.com/marijuananews/cowan/canadian_study_confirms_that_mar.htm”>Canadian Study Confirms That Marijuana Impairs Driving Far Less Than Alcohol

Pete Henshall of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, which is a British political party, comments that “any person who is not in full control of their body should not drive, be it through tiredness, alcohol, cannabis or drugs … but everything must be seen in proportion.

We need to legalise and regulate cannabis in a similar way to alcohol to be able to see the size of the problem.”

Jane Eason of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents favours the roadside tests to spot cannabis intoxication now being tried by British police. “We would welcome any measure that might make the roads of Britain safer.” (MarijuanaNews note: Would she welcome arresting people for being tired? That “might make the roads of Britain safer.”)

Copyright: New Scientist, RBI Limited 2000

[wordsworm]

"DON’T BE A DOPE If you’re going to smoke a joint, don’t drive home IT’S official: smoking dope makes you a worse driver."

I'm not really sure - is that you speaking or someone else? In any case, if they follow the science (lol), then they ought to see that marijuana doesn't impair driving at all. Surely if you smoke so much that you're going to be a danger to those around you, you're going to pull over to the side of the road and take a nap. When they did the high dosage test, did they allow the participants to take a nap and satiate their urge for munchies?

[User]

Originally Posted by wordsworm

...I'm not really sure - is that you speaking or someone else? ...

its just a copy & paste of the article you'd linked too earlier in this thread.

[hood1]

If you smoke for medical reasons on a regular basis the high is much less that a first time user. Basis 40 years experience

CFH