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February 9th, 2012
06:30 PM ET
Marijuana nearly doubles risk of collisionsWe hear a lot about the hazards of drunk driving, but here's something else to put on your radar: A study in the British Medical Journal found that marijuana nearly doubles the risk of vehicle collisions. Researchers conducted a systematic review of nine studies on the subject of marijuana and driving accidents, which incorporated almost 50,000 participants. Alcohol impairs drivers' speed and reaction time, while cannabis affects spatial location, said Mark Asbridge, associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Among impaired drivers, fatally injured drivers, and motor vehicle crash victims, marijuana is the most prevalent illegal drug that has been detected, according to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Drivers who have recently smoked marijuana may follow cars too closely, and swerve in and out of lanes, Asbridge said. People who are impaired by alcohol often recognize that they're impaired by alcohol, but "people under the influence of cannabis often deny feeling impaired in any way," Asbridge noted. It's not unusual for young people to go to a party and give the "designated driver" responsibility to the person who uses marijuana, Asbridge said. "There clearly is a lot of misconception about the extent to which cannabis impairs performance," he said. "People just don't believe it." As with alcohol, cannabis has different effects on different people. People metabolize cannabis in different ways. Some inhale more than others. The effects of cannabis tend to wear off within three to four hours, whereas alcohol can mess your thinking up longer. Depending on how much you drank, you may not be able to drive for up to 12 hours after you finish drinking. If the driver is 35 or younger, there's a higher likelihood of marijuana consumption leading to collisions, previous research has found. There's not enough information known about the effects of marijuana doses on collisions - in other words, what level of cannabis in a person's system correlates most with crashes. And Asbridge's conclusions are based on observational studies, meaning there were no controlled conditions imposed to look at the effects of marijuana. One problem in some of the existing research is that there was no measurement of cannabis within two to three hours of driving. Inactive metabolites of THC, a chemical found in marijuana, can be present in urine for weeks or even a month after usage; marijuana usage so long ago would not affect driving performance or collisions. So Asbridge's group looked only at studies where there was a recent measurement. They also looked at studies that looked at both drivers who used marijuana and those who did not to compare the collision rate. To deter marijuana usage just before driving, there is roadside testing for cannabis in Australia, western Europe and the United States, Wayne Hall of the University of Queensland in Australia said in an accompanying editorial. Hall called for further research to evaluating the impact of roadside drug testing on preventing driver deaths connected to vehicle accidents and cannabis use.
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Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest stories from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the CNN Medical Unit producers. They'll share news and views on health and medical trends - info that will help you take better care of yourself and the people you love. Recent Comments
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It's already illegal to operate a vehicle under the influence of pot, so...what's the point here? Doesn't provide any reasoning for not legalizing it.
The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.
source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm
The new findings “were against our expectations,” said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.
“We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,” he said. “What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”
The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.
source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm
Dr. M
The new findings “were against our expectations,” said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.
“We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,” he said. “What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”
source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729.html
The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.
source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm
The new findings “were against our expectations,” said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.
“We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,” he said. “What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”
source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729.html
In 1992, a study released by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) indicated that alcohol is by far the leading cause of drug-related traffic accidents, while marijuana poses a negligible danger, except when combined with alcohol. In an analysis of blood samples from 1,882 drivers killed in vehicular accidents in seven states, alcohol was found in over 51%. Marijuana was a distant second to alcohol, at just 6.7%. Because two-thirds of those deceased marijuana users were also under the influence of alcohol at the time of death, the actual number of drivers who tested positive for cannabis was 2.2%, the exact number determined by the NTSB in 1988. The US government’s 1992 NHTSA research, considered the most comprehensive study of cannabis use among driving fatalities, was suppressed for almost two years because it contradicted America’s “just say no” anti-pot propaganda.
Nearly all my friends in the latter part of high school smoked pot (my group was the NHS top 5% hippie egghead group, for those who will belittle my intelligence– think Bill Gates). For 3 years, not one had even a fender-bender, nor do I know anyone now who ever had an accident driving high. I did, however, once have the friend riding shotgun remind me that the stop sign was not going to turn green any time soon, and that I should proceed. We all drove slower and more carefully, which later scientific studies by various government groups have confirmed. That being said, I still think it's better to drive only when you are sober and straight– an accident isn't worth it.
I've used marijuana for 50 years, and I refuse to drive if I've smoked. I don't doubt that most marijuana users do the same.
wimp
Yes, durf, because all pot smokers are so level headed. Puh -leeze. I have to agree with Bill here – "...stupidity is the leading cause of collisions." That includes texting while driving, mixing alcohol, pot and/or prescription drugs with sedating effects, etc. BTW, I am a firm believer in the legalization of pot.
I salute your self-control and marijuana use, but you are indeed an optimist if you feel that ALL young teens follow your self-controlled ways. IT is not their nature to be iunder control.
mant can even smoke while driving
LOL, yeah between the butt and the couch
At present, marijuana users are, by default, people who are willing to break the law for their own pleasure. That is not to say that all marijuana smokers would be more likely to violate traffic laws and drive more recklessly, but you can't ignore the fact that when looking at observational studies about marijuana's impact on driving ability, you are essentially looking at the driving abilities of outlaws.
And before marijuana reform supporters crucify me, I am not saying that marijuana is the cause of their behavior, just their willingness to break the law (whether the law is worthwhile or not).
Just like all the people who drank alcohol during prohibition
Let's see how sam's logic measures up. Marital aids (aka "sex toys") are legal in Indiana but not in Texas. So if a married couple packs their bags and includes the sex toys, knowing they're illegal in Texas and take a road trip to Texas, will they:
a) drive more recklessly all the way to Texas
b) drive safely until they hit the Texas state line and *then* begin to drive recklessly
c) be more intelligent than their overly fearful hyper law-abiding fellow "super"-citizens and actually drive more carefully in order to avoid being pulled over and searched?
Oh, never mind, ya can't win an argument with fools.....
It makes me sick that pleasurable activities are illegal. What a world of idiots. Grow up and stop being so afraid. What childish immature people fear something like pot. When will they grow up and loose the stigma that destroys freedom for so many. I cant wait for change to make the fear mongers look like the babies that they are.
It makes you sick that pleasurable activities are illegal? Then pedophilia should be legal, and taking any drugs including PCP and LSD should be legal, etc. There are people who get pleasure from things that are illegal for a reason.
Watch the movie "Super High Me".
Your closing statement, b4bigbang, in conjunction with the sum of your other posts on this matter, is precisely why I will not be arguing with you.
Your point is true and obvious. The only problem with this report is that it is not revealing a very important factor. The factor is that when an accident is caused and they find Cannabis in the system, it is usually not the only thing they detect in the person. When it is cannabis alone the police have been known to catch a cannabis user simply because they are driving "REALLY GOOD". That is not something they want to tell the mass public though.
Outlaws? So, have you ever jaywalked? Taken a tax break you didn't entirely deserve? More to the point, have you ever (EVER) driven your car after tilting a few back? So, given your flagrant disregard for the law, please pick out an ice floe for the rest of us to cast you out upon. I am not defending impaired driving, just putting some perspective around your argument. You are basically saying that anyone who has ever smoked pot is something OTHER than decent citizens such as yourself, and I am calling BS. I am not anti rule of law or anything either, but there's a matter of degree to be taken into account, and I submit it's a little closer to jaywalking than the lock 'em up and throw away the key picture of anarchist drug-fueled killers you seem to be painting.
So, basically they are saying that if you smoked 15 days ago you get in an accident, it is because of the marijuana. And of course it impairs your driving, nobody ever said it didn't.
Still thinking about sam's post. Here's another "outlaw" -related driving question:
Since, according to sam, "outlaws" by "default" may scoff at driving laws, does this mean that the folks who disobeyed Hitler's law ordering all citizens to turn in Jews were worse drivers than the rest of the German population?
They forgot to mention in the study that most collisions where at mc Donald drive-thru windows!
Amazing how many enraged potheads come out today to defend their favorite past time. Would be more productive if they produced a sound, scientific piece to counter the conclusion of this study and convince people otherwise. Oh wait, they're all too high to do that.
Gee Sue, there've been tons of scientific studies done on pot smoking, one in particular done by then Pres Nixon's Blue Ribbon panel of science experts, pretty much all concluding that pot is probably the most benign drug known to man.
What have YOU been smoking Sue???
Actually, there is nothing to refute. Asbridge's "study" was not a scientific study. It was a study of various other studies, apparently none of which determined the amount of pot smoked or the time lapse between smoking and driving. It also did not measure the amount of THC in the systems of drivers at the times of accidents, as would be required to draw any scientific conclusions. I would not read too much into Asbridge's "study" if I were looking for a factual basis for my dogma.
Here you go Sam. If you want to see something Scientific http://youtu.be/q6Fcks7pla0 There you go.
Oops on the Sam part Sue. Sorry about that. Oh and one more thing; i don't smoke, ingest, or use weed at all. I have stumbled across a video called "Run from the Cure". Once I saw that video I started doing reading books about all the actual studies done on Cannabis. And what I found was not a plant that should be destroyed, but used in the correct way. And I still don't use Cannabis, but do know the real reason it is illegal. It is so nice not to fall for Lies anymore, but to know the truth. Scientific studies? – The Le Dain Commision Report – The LaGuardia Committee Report – The Shafer Commissions Report. All of these were set up and done by the governments with one thing in common. They ignored the "Scientific Results" of their own Reports.
As a result, cannabis-induced variations in performance do not typically appear to play a significant role in on-road traffic accidents when the THC levels present in a driver's blood are low and/or cannabis is not consumed in combination with alcohol.[32-33] For example, a 1993 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration review of the role of drug use in fatal accidents reported, "[T]here is little if any evidence to indicate that drivers who have used marijuana alone are any more likely to cause serious accidents than drug free drivers."[34] A more recent assessment by Blows and colleagues noted that self-reported recent use of cannabis (within three hours of driving) was not significantly associated with car crash injury after investigators controlled for specific cofounders (e.g., seat-belt use, sleepiness, etc.)[35] A 2004 observational case control study published in the journal Accident, Analysis and Prevention reported that only drivers under the influence of alcohol or benzodiazepines experience an increased crash risk compared to drug-free controls. Investigators did observe increased risks – though they were not statistically significant – among drivers using amphetamines, cocaine and opiates, but found, "No increased risk for road trauma was found for drivers exposed to cannabis."
LIES AND MORE LIES!!!!!!!!!
MARIJUANA MAKES YOU MORE OBSERVANT AND IF YOU ARE TOO HIGH YOU DO'NT WANT TO GO ANYWHERE AND YOU WANT A NAP OR LOTS OF FOOD AND DRINK LIKE SODA POP!!!!!
UNLIKE THESE DRUNKS WHO DID THIS STUDY WHO THINK THEY ARE IMPERVIOUS TO THE HARMS OF ALCOHOL AND DRIVING.
Apparently the marijuana did not make you more observant of the caps lock key.
I wish that you couldn't post a comment if you have the text in all caps. You're giving cannabis consumers a bad name when you post like that. If you have an opinion on anything, take the time to make it worth reading. That said I don't think you should judge a movement by the proverbial low hanging fruit of the followers, you're purposely ignoring the good people who actually know how to convey their frustrations.
Dude you are so right..Every time I had smoked and then took a drive I was so more aware of how I was driving..Completely calm and not in a hurry to get any where..Always the speed limit and took my time..This article is such crap..Weaving in and out of lanes, yea maybe if your some young puck who can't handle his weed and is reckless..I know from experience that this article is bogus.If anything I drove better than even being sober..Not even caring if somebody was riding my ass,or speeding by me 20 miles over the speed limit..I didn't need to prove a point and try to make my case with the other drivers..Just so content on driving safely..Not one speeding ticket,accident or anything in the 10 years I smoked and then took a cruise..So according to my study if your a responsible human being you will drive just fine while high!!
HOW MANY PEOPLE DRIVE AND WRECK BECAUSE OF PRESCRIPTION DRUG IMPAIRMENT???
HOW MANY OLD GEEZERS AND GRANNYS ARE OUT THERE DRIVING AROUND THAT HAVE NO IDEA WHERE THEY ARE HALF THE TIME????
HOW MANY OF THEM ARE HIGH ON MULTIPLE PRESCRIPTION DRUGS?!?!?!?
HOW MANY THOUSANDS HAVE DIED BECAUSE OF ALCOHOL AND DRIVING????
I CAN BET YOU NOR ONE PERSON HAS EVER DIED OR CRASHED THEIR CAR SOLEY BECAUSE OF MARIJUANA USE.
MARIJUANA CAN STAY IN YOUR BODY FOR THIRTY DAYS EVEN AFTER JUST ONE USE.
SO IF YOU WRECK YOUR CAR AFTER ONLY TWENTY DAYS YOU CAN BE CHARGED WITH DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF MARIJUANA!!!!!!
HOW MESSED UP IS THIS COUNTRY???
ILLEGAL WARS AND BAILED OUT BANKS THAT'S HOW MESSED UP IT IS.
I have a small piece of advice: adding fifteen exclamation points after each sentence and posting your entire comment in upper case does not make your argument more persuasive. It merely makes people scroll down without reading because they realize you are probably stoned right now and commenting from your parent' basement.
Though me and Muhron disagree on the issue of marijuana i do agree with him here your only hurting our cause acting like that...try and use big words please
Certainly marijuana doesn't help your ability to spell.
And reasoning that other people drive impaired, so it is okay for you to is not a strong argument.
Smoke pot, stay home or at least don't drive. What is so difficult to understand about that?
And I want to see some posts from friends and spouses of people who smoke pot regularly. My brother smoked pot and had schizophrenic symptoms only when on pot. When he quit after a year, his symptoms resolved and have not come back. It may have been pleasurable for him, but I feared for my life and was lucky I was able to move out of our parents house.
Well if everyone here would do some research of their own then they would know in 1993 The US Department Of Transportation came out with a study stating marijuana actually improves driving ability. Also alcohol makes driving way harder than marijuana does but for some reason thats ok right? Its also somewhat odd that tobacco kills hundreds of thousands of people each year but thats totally fine isn't it? I think its certainly time for us to rethink the way we handle these substances, I believe as a responsible adult you have the right to use a plant (not a drug) that God put on this planet for us.
No one said those other things were "fine." They simply reported a study that said pot smokers get into more accidents. Nothing you said counters that finding.
I was trying to represent the people who would judge me for smoking a joint while they have a glass of whiskey in one hand and a cig in the other, everyone has the right to an opinion i just feel maybe a relatively safe, medicinal plant with amazing industrial and economic value should be reconsidered by the people of America
God put a lot of things on this planet, and we can do whatever we want.
And pot smokers ignore that there are those who are allergic or hypersensitive to pot's effects. They think because THEY have a good experience, and it helps THEM get over their daily anxieties, it should be legal.
And ask your dealer if they think it should be legal.
Provide a link to the study that you mentioned, please. I would love to read it.
I am having a good chuckle this morning reading the comments on this article from all of the pot smokers. You all sound like my teenaged son! While I have known several responsible pot smokers in my life, they will all tell you that it impairs them and they don't drive for several hours after smoking. It's just like me choosing not to drive if I have had a drink or taken cold meds. You may think you are driving well after smoking pot but, as the article points out, you are actually not capable of determining how impaired you are. People that drink alcohol don't realize how drunk they are either.
As for the effects of pot, do some research or talk to a medical doctor. It can cause schizophrenia and psychotic breaks. The effect that I think most men would be concerned about is that it reduces your hormone level which, in turn, gives you "little girl breasts", reduces your body hair, and shrinks your testicles, making you VERY popular should you ever go to prison. That, my friends, is information from our doctor but I am sure that it is online as well. So smoke away. If you depend on pot to help you through the day, you are no better than an alcoholic that needs a drink. And for those of you that say that it is a plant that God gave us, God made cyanide occur naturally too. Can I bag some of that up for you to smoke?
Smoking Pot will ruin your health just like smoking anything else. Lungs suffer from all the carcinogens produced by burning plant matter.
The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.
source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070417193338.htm
The new findings “were against our expectations,” said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.
“We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,” he said. “What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”
source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729.html
In 1992, a study released by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) indicated that alcohol is by far the leading cause of drug-related traffic accidents, while marijuana poses a negligible danger, except when combined with alcohol. In an analysis of blood samples from 1,882 drivers killed in vehicular accidents in seven states, alcohol was found in over 51%. Marijuana was a distant second to alcohol, at just 6.7%. Because two-thirds of those deceased marijuana users were also under the influence of alcohol at the time of death, the actual number of drivers who tested positive for cannabis was 2.2%, the exact number determined by the NTSB in 1988. The US government’s 1992 NHTSA research, considered the most comprehensive study of cannabis use among driving fatalities, was suppressed for almost two years because it contradicted America’s “just say no” anti-pot propaganda.
muhron can eat my 8==============================================================D
Cigarettes dont kill people. All studies have proven its correlated, not causal.
sorry it took so long to get back to you but heres the link http://members.iowatelecom.net/sharkhaus/driving.html and one more thing TX have you ever smoked marijuana? because i dont think you really have any right to be spreading "facts" about something youve never tried. I have mild depression and severe back pain (from a car accident in which alcohol was involved) and cannabis is the most effective, healthy medicine ive used.
One more thing TXpresby you said God made cyanide, but as far as I can see from my research man made cyanide with things God gave us unless of course you could send me a link to a cyanide plant?
um, how many people have died due to cell phones?
They don't even mention what strains they are smoking. Smoke some Sour Diesel and you feel completely different than smoking some OG. Sour Kush is nice as is Lemon Haze and Tahoe OG and Bubba and XJ-13 and Jack the Ripper or LA Confidential or Phyllis Diller...etc...etc
Come to Cali and live in Peace.
THANK YOU MIKE! I was waiting for someone to point that out. For those that don't know much about cannibis, there are two different types. One is intended for the daytime (let's call it "DayQuil"), and the other is for night time (let's call it "NyQuil"). If you take DayQuil and drive, you're fine...if you take NyQuil and drive...you're screwed.
420 I love high rides thay are the.best
this article is ridiculous it was simply published so uneducated people would vote no on medical marijuana , no one should be driving under any mind altering influence, alcohol prescription drugs or otherwise all my prescriptions say I should not drive or operate machinery until I know how the drug effects me. However this article is simply saying it's outright bad, marijuana has less harmful effects then legal alcohol and cigarettes. All this "reefer madness" is just more government propaganda.
It all depends on how much you use, and whether you expose others to your impaired state.
I feel great when on oxycodone, but that doesn't mean I should drive on it.
Shame on you CNN for posting this complete garbage is this part of Romneys prohibition campaign?
Dude, apparently your and others' posts indicate that use of marijuana dulls the ability to use punctuation and correct grammar. If y'all can't even type straight, how can you drive safely?
You shouldn't read while driving, you shouldn't do 90 percent of the things you do every day WHILE DRIVING. You shouldn't use a cell phone either. Millions of things exist that you shouldn't do while driving. Get over it. Give humans freedom, only punish those who are not responsible. Give me my body you idiots.
Prevention saves more lives than intervention after the fact.
NEWSFLASH: Don't read the news especially CNN while driving.
On a separate study however, legalizing medical marijuana actually reduced traffic fatalities. Go figure.
http://ftp.iza.org/dp6112.pdf
http://www.allgov.com/Unusual_News/ViewNews/Medical_Marijuana_Reduces_Traffic_Deaths_120119
I smoked pot last week. If I got into a fender-bender (either my fault or not), and they tested me for THC & it was in my system (as it is until fully flushed out), the pot is to blame? Uh, sorry, but no.
sniffing gas nearly quadruples chance of collision. Listen everybody I grew up with I saw smoke or was around pot and they now hold positions from business to professional in all walks of life. As long as we provide laws to make illegal we are doing a great service to organized crime. The United States of American needs to classify pot like any other garden plant. Not to be taxed or we will start another for profit problem. Keep pot legal keep pot out of profit for any group
Keep pot out of profit for any group? Do you realize that the major problem, for you guys, is that they will TAX the hell out of it and as soon as some kid smokes pot and crashes his car, there will be lawsuits and a moratorium on it?
And for all those who say "if it's pleasurable, it should be legal" you should know that LSD and salvia are pleasurable for some, but are dramatically negative for others. Ask the parents whose son jumped off a roof while on salvia.
All the pot users I knew didn't even like to go out while stoned. Unlike people who drink, they usually prefer to chill out at their houses or their friend's place and order out for pizza or chinese food. CNN needs to leave these people alone and start confronting those people walking out of bars all tipsy after their Long Island Ice Tea, like their own reporters.
Im a firm believer that the U.S tries and tries again to find and tell ways to make pot illegal. i know they have other motives for keeping it illegal, reason that are rediculous. to be honest i drive safer.
Actuall,y stupidity is the leading cause of collisions.Stupidity should be outlawed.
The only real reason to keep it illegal is to prop up aspirin, liquor and cigarette sales. Pot is a h%$#@L of a lot less additive, if not at all, compared to cigarettes. Matter of fact, it would lower cigarette related medicare/medicaid costs since its effects
seem to reduce those of cigarettes on the lungs.
O.K Nine studies with 50,000 participants. Had these particpants injested only marijuana? Personally, I fear all of the drivers fuctioning on "legal" prescription drugs. Our government and others have used marijuana as the hot topic on the "war on drugs" to cover-up the bigger problem, heroin, cocaine, meth, etc.,etc. Do we here of huge busts of these drugs very often? Not. Wow, on Friday they busted a couple of guys with 47 lbs. of heroin that they hauled via bus ride. That was one bust of how many that have gotten through. IMarijuana is not a narcotic, so why is it on the narcotic list? Why is that powerful people hate to be wrong?
Where were any of these studies 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years ago. This is just a total BS article. It must have been written by drunkards.
What else do you have CNN that Pot gives cancer? LOL
Where are the "Studies", who did them, and who paid for them? With 50K people in the "studies" I seriously doubt that they were scientific. Were the use of other substances,. used in conjunction, considered? Was there a presence of metabolites from a month previous. AND if it indeed doubled the likelihood of a collision, the number is still half of those with a .08 blood alcohol level, which was below the legal limit until a few years ago.
With that said, no one should operate a vehicle when impaired in any way. The report was specious at best, considering all the facts omitted.
LEAP member, NYPD, ret.
What a crock of BS..drivers 35 and under have a higher incidence of crashes to begin with...give me a highway full of pot smokers over one drunk driver anyday
Just a thought: Does no one realize that marijuana is found most often not because people are under the influence at the time of an accident, but because it is far more mainstream to have pot these days than people want to admit??? It takes a month to clear pot from a body and the biggest side effect is laziness and overeating. As far as driving, potheads are more likely to wait for a stop sign to change colors and drive 20 miles under the speed limit. They are annoying to deal with on the roads, but no more so than lost tourists, scared teens, or elderly folks that just are never in a hurry. We are living in the age of the retired hippies, do you really think they have suddenly demonized pot????
this is the biggest joke of an article ive ever seen.
wait til the last paragraph to explain to the "uneducated reader" that marijuana can stay in your system for weeks, therefore making any study based on testing someone irrelevant unless they've smoked in the last few hours.
Why not publish a real story CNN, your writers are AWFUL
I guess the basic question most would ask about the findings of this study is: Why should we care, what's the relevance? I guess what I want to know is, assuming that marijuana will eventually become legalized in the United States, is there any valid metric that can be used to accurately predict how much, if any, of an increase of impaired drivers we will see on our highways as a result of legalizing marijuana? I've listened to the pro-weed folks argue the unfairness of alcohol being legal and marijuana being illegal and I agree it does not make sense from a technical perspective. That said, I don't really care if the person who collides into me was drunk on beer or high on weed, I'd prefer not to get hit by either. At the end of the day, the quest for equality between alcoholics and pot heads should not come at the expense of sober motorists.
i guess nobody read the report sat said pot reduced accidents . i hope all these people get there heads out of there a$$ leaglize it quit trying to blow smoke up everbds butt the drug compaines and booze makers don't want it on the market look at all the money they will lose. its all to do wih money not a thing to do with your health remember the add with the fried egg years ago when are they going to grow up
I'm not a proponent of using any mild altering substance and driving, but it helps to put these findings in perspective. Driving and using a cellphone results in a 4x increase in accidents (Two controlled studies, one in 2005 in Australia and another 1997 in Canada, cell phone use confirmed at time of accident by phone records). Drivers with a BAC above 0.05 but below the legal limit are 7.2 times more likely to be in a fatal collision than drivers with a zero BAC (I realize it's not the same measure, but it stands to reason that if the fatal accident rate is high, the overall accident rate will be even higher). So does that mean it's safer to smoke pot and drive than it is to drive while using a cellphone or after drinking a legal amount of alcohol? Again, not a recommendation, but food for thought.
I think the war on drugs is ridicules and if folks want to smoke pot it should be as legal as Beer or Whisky.
Pot Smoking make you stupid and causes memory problems, but you should be able to smoke it if you want to.
Lungs are rather delicate and do not do well with inhaled particulates of any kind–those from cigarettes, weed, smokestacks coal mines etc... We often decry things that hurt us and try to find ways to lessen the impact of these things– Pot has the added problem of interfering with reflexes etc so you can hurt not only yourself but others.... Now, –if you care just to smoke alone in your cellar and you have no wife, husband or kids– at least promise us that you won't do anything that will kill people outside of you--don't smoke pot and then drive, fly a plane, do surgery, pull teeth –or do our taxes!
It doubles the risk of being rear-ended by a drunk driver talking on their cell....
Propaganda BS.
Cannabis and Driving: A Scientific and Rational Review:
http://norml.org/library/item/cannabis-and-driving-a-scientific-and-rational-review
The drunk driver speeds through the stop sign without seeing it.
The stoned driver stops and patiently waits for it to turn green. Guitherism
Since every simulator testing of subjects while using and following use have shown to increase of danger equal too driving 5 mph over the speed limit while texting increases the dangers of collision 25 times,,if our government was truly worried about decreasing traffic fatalities they would be forcing phone makers to adjust all cell phones to log off in cars,,,all,,but that is taking money from corprorations,,oh yeah,,we don't do that.
^^^^
Above cited site that strongly endorses marijuana legalization.
Not biased much, no?
Nice Reefer Madness slant you got here. Take your propaganda someplace else.
legalize marijuana like alcohol. and people that are under the influence of alcohol can also believe that they are sober enough to drive, probably more often than high people.
To Sharky, you seem to respond to only select proponents of cannibis. God forbid one of these proponents has actually benefited from the medicine (and yes, I am calling it medicine because my neck used to cramp and lock, some of the most excrutiating pain I've ever felt, yet I haven't had that happen since I started smoking).
Why would they leave that much room to type your name in?
muhron can eat my 8===============D
Why when the world is blowing itself up we are talking about weed still. People are going to use it more if it's illegal dummies.
unfortunately they will never legalize marijuana because it give cops aka "criminals with a badge" job security.....they spend more time busting people for weed then solving real crimes....its a shame that responsible smokers get there paychecks raped because they are constantly wanting more cops out there and are putting more weed smokers behind bars.
not in my state. lol cops dont care about weed much in seattle.
Correlation does not equal causation. It might just be that the free-wheeling, carefree types who smoke dope are the same type of people who drive recklessly. But doesn't mean pot is what caused it.
marijuana is still no where near as problematic when it comes to driving as alcohol is.
And here you have more proof why Marijuana is to dangerous to legalize like tobacco. Users have their spatial abilities impaired and worse, they have no idea this is happening. Add this to the studies that show the long term damage to the brain (memory loss, attention deficits, losing the ability to focus, impairment of the ability to learn). Legalizing Marijuana for general use is a bad, bad, bad idea.
With that said, there is enough evidence that it does have medicinal benefits for those in need. Short term use of the drug does not appear to have any lasting effects on the brain. And we have lots of drugs that get prescribed already with warnings such as "Do not drive while using". It makes sense to consider adjusting the drug to a Schedule II classification (usable under medical supervision). The basic fear preventing this is the belief that there is a high potential for abuse and it acts as a gateway drug. But the same can be said for inhalents (glues and other items sniffed to produce a high), alcohol (that abuse is obvious), and other similar drugs.
So should Marijuana be legalized for general use? No, only an idiot would support that. The risks and problems from it's use are to high. But evidence does support moving it to a Schedule II drug that doctors could prescribe for specific treatmetns. Of course some control will be needed over that still. California has been looking at how the loose language of the law in that state has allowed all sorts of "doctors" to prescibe Marijuana for all sorts of sicknesses (like headaches). Hmmmm ... this clear abuse in California sort of backs up critics contentions it should stay Schedule I. People are getting scam prescriptions for the stuff for things like Headaches .. so they can use it socially. Clearly the drug has a high abuse potential if that is happening.
they fail to mention the collisions never occur at over 3 miles an hour
And Alcohol QUADRUPLES DEATH and destruction on the highways and still pays pennies in TAXES