Posted on 08/08/2014 1:36:04 PM PDT by Mariner
Since Colorado voters legalized pot in 2012, prohibition supporters have warned that recreational marijuana will lead to a scourge of “drugged divers” on the state’s roads. They often point out that when the state legalized medical marijuana in 2001, there was a surge in drivers found to have smoked pot. They also point to studies showing that in other states that have legalized pot for medical purposes, we’ve seen an increase in the number of drivers testing positive for the drug who were involved in fatal car accidents. The anti-pot group SAM recently pointed out that even before the first legal pot store opened in Washington state, the number of drivers in that state testing positive for pot jumped by a third.
The problem with these criticisms is that we can test only for the presence of marijuana metabolites, not for inebriation. Metabolites can linger in the body for days after the drug’s effects wear off — sometimes even for weeks. Because we all metabolize drugs differently (and at different times and under different conditions), all that a positive test tells us is that the driver has smoked pot at some point in the past few days or weeks.
It makes sense that loosening restrictions on pot would result in a higher percentage of drivers involved in fatal traffic accidents having smoked the drug at some point over the past few days or weeks. You’d also expect to find that a higher percentage of churchgoers, good Samaritans and soup kitchen volunteers would have pot in their system. You’d expect a similar result among any large sampling of people. This doesn’t necessarily mean that marijuana caused or was even a contributing factor to accidents, traffic violations or fatalities.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I struggle with what causes a person to think they are entitled to tell another person they can't get high, or drunk, or fat.
Will they soon try to pass a law against being born stupid? I sure hope so.
As if 0.08 causes every driver "problems" or a six-pack container with one or two empty slots being ruled an "open container".
It's all about procedural crime.
And someone who ODed on a THC laced chocolate bar (that was supposed to be "virgin") had the level of THC in his blood measured. Would that stay elevated for weeks?
OD is relative.
I have seen folks "OD" on edibles and it looks VERY unpleasant. Very.
They THINK they are going to die, but they don't.
Correlation is not causation. Indeed, it’s the first thing that one learns when this topic is taught in statistics. Unfortunately, it is often forgotten when statistical correlations are calculated.
However, when one predicts a future event, and that event does not happen, he deserves to lose all benefit of the doubt. Reality has demonstrated that his prediction was wrong, and it is reasonable to suspect his presumptions, prejudices, methods, and models.
The WOD promoters predicted carnage on the highways and an increase in underage marijuana consumption following Colorado’s legalization. Neither has happened; in fact, the opposite has occurred. Personally, I doubt that legalization had much to do with either phenomena, but the drug warriors’ predictions were, as a matter of fact, wrong and the legalizers have been, as a matter of fact, correct so far.
Conservatives should apply the same criterion to the prognostications of drug warriors that they apply to global warming alarmists. If global warming alarmists predict decadal increases in global temperature, and the satellite data indicate no change in seventeen years, it is reasonable call the alarmists wrong. (James Hansen predicted monotonic decadal increases in global temperature. He was, as a matter of fact, wrong.) Since so many profit from climate change alarmism, it’s even reasonable to suspect that the whole thing is a scam. Same applies to the WOD.
What I've heard and I think I saw this in at least one article is that driving while high arrests are way up and are now about equal with DUI's.
Accidents are up. But, no one is going fast enough to do any damage.
A drunk will blow through a stop sign as if it weren’t even there. Somebody who is stoned will stop and wait for it to change.
lol
I think the important part is that it’s the opposite of what the WOD defenders predicted. They insisted it was going to be mass chaos with stoned people everywhere being stoned and getting people killed and giggling. So it might not prove legalizing pot is good, it certainly shows it’s not catastrophic.
The first stores officially opened on January 1, 2014. This pathetic A$$hole is trying to argue with six months worth by comparing it to 12 years.
I went over to the Washington Post and tried to read the rest of the story. It is discombobulated and hard to follow. It reads like he was on drugs when he wrote it.
Also looked him up. Pretty much all he does is churn out stories about legalizing drugs, blah blah blah.
Six months is too small of a sample to draw any meaningful conclusions, But i've argued with these potheads before. Every single thing will be twisted into a justification of their desire to tamper with their brain chemistry.
Oh, and if you think people don't have a right to stone their brains out, you are a Fascist Nazi what has smelly feet.
Lol
Heads explode
“The AMA hates cannabis because most folks with minor aches and complaints can alleviate them with a drug that can readily be had out of a small flower garden. “
If it is readily had out of a small flower garden why are people getting rich selling it?
And how do you know there has not been an increase in underage marijuana consumption? Where are you getting this "Fact" from, and how do you know it's true? Do they take a poll of the underaged tokers or something?
If tou make something more freely available I find it unlikely that teen usage will go down or remain the same. How would their be a reverse correlation?
Who predicted this? I didn't predict this. What I predicted was that society would just add a whole bunch of useless people to the welfare roles.
I didn’t way you did. But plenty of others did. And don’t worry, I’m sure your predictions will prove to be just as wrong as everybody else’s.
Keep looking - there’s more problems in Colorado than non-drivers with the munchies.
House explosions have gone through the roof (literally). “Dopin’ Dans” (remember Robert Crumb?) are no longer content to light up and toke away. Now, they extract and concentrate the resin by cooking - with propane camping stoves. When done, they turn the torch off (so they think), then retreat into drug induced stupor. An hour or so later, they light up a cig, and, BOOM!
Or, they knock the stove over and it starts a fire. [Dude! It’s gettin’ really hot in here!]
What a deal - we produce virtually nothing in the USA, need illegals to mow our lawns and work construction, and on our way to turning most of the rest of us into permanent couch potatoes.
Remember back when cars had metal bumpers ?
Free Republic Quote of the Year, so far.
Well if they are, it will certainly have to go a different direction from all of my previous experience with potheads. All the ones i've ever known are worthless F**ks on Welfare, and that's out of the ones that even HAVE an income.
I think someone’s blowing smoke here —
My 'guess' is that since GAS is so high, once pot was legalized, people in CO decided to stay home and get high. I.E. they shifted their spending habits.
Less traffic, less accidents.
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