Fascist. Pot never hurt nobody!/s
Gee, who didn’t see this coming?
unexpected!
There have been millions of high drivers on the roadways for many years. This is now worthy of reporting because.......? Personally, I think we need to get the drunks off the road and then focus on the other potential problems.
I’m no fan of pot, and am far from a cheerleader for its use. I am, however, libertarian in my view that the government needs to stay the hell out of our lives. Articles like this seek to flame anger and result in kneejerk reactions from ignorant politicians.
If you take pain med, you really should not drive. For legal reasons and moral ones, a person just shouldn’t take that risk.
Medical marijuania falls into the same catagory.
Now certain other meds can make you a touch “woozy”, but as far as the law is concerned, nothing will bring the wrath down on you like taking a controlled substance and then God forbid get into an accident where someone is hurt.
Shameful.
I do agree that a standard, based on scientific study, is required to establish impairment. Just as a standard should be required for ALL substances known to cause impairment...like cough medicine, pain pills, tranquilizers, alcohol etc.
I also believe that objective observation of impairment should be required to be shown and attested to by any officer BEFORE a drug or alcohol test can be ordered.
The hell you say.
‘Scientific standards’ for determining level of impairment is not there for road safety, it is there for slam dunk convictions. Reckless driving is a problem, distracting from that with a whole series of tests to determine impairment takes the focus away from the problem in the first place.
If you can’t drive straight, you shouldn’t be able to get away from it by blowing a low number in a tube. Or being able to touch your nose in a complicated series of instructions. A sleepy driver should face the same penalties as a drunk driver.
The continued creating of new classes of crime is the problem with our judicial system. End these ‘scientific standards’ and get back to actual probable cause for pulling someone over.
It would be helpful if the author had researched the total number of traffic fatalities (normalized for the population) and looked for a recent spike. It also would have been more honest if the author had given the total number of traffic fatalities in California so that we might have some perspective about 1000 pot related deaths. As it is, this smacks of a nanny stater adopting the misleading tactics of MADD for his own cause.
BS
Apparently it alters one’s perceptions which is dangerous at 80 mph. Furthemore, it is addictive enough to produce a fanatic desire to legalize it in order to insure ready trouble free access. Look at the savage nature leveled by the users against those who condemn its use. Its use does something to the brain.
Probably not the whole story. Before medical marijuana had been approved anywhere, but marijuana was widely consumed, it was shown to almost never caused traffic accidents, *unless* it was in combination with alcohol, or to a much lesser extent, other drugs, or if the driver was involved in criminal evasion of the police.
The reason for this was widely understood to be based on the psychological effects of marijuana. Drivers generally drive *below* the speed limit, and are very cautious and careful about making maneuvers while driving. In short, they stay in the right lane and drive like grandmothers.
Some argument can be made that driving several miles below the speed limit can in its own right create a hazardous situation, if other drivers are, as a group, exceeding the speed limit by at least 10mph or more, and thus are also making sharp and inherently dangerous maneuvers with their vehicles. But this is a rationalization. A driver obeying the speed limit cannot control others who are not, yet he is not breaking the law, so should not be held accountable.
Even when someone is very inebriated with marijuana, the effect continues, until their vehicle is just creeping along, and they often pull over to take a nap.
So the preponderance of evidence is that there are other reasons for medical marijuana user accidents, at least until proven otherwise.
I do find one thing funny however; I bet the drug-warriors would freak out to find out how many close people to them use marijuana. "Not my friends or family, NEVER!". Well, see, that is a responsible marijuana user; because you will never know and nor should you. Its their business.
Wow, who’da thunk it?
Marijuana And Actual Driving Performance Executive Summary
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration By Robbe HWJ, O'Hanlon JF November 1993
Methinks the data is being skewed with expoential growth of cell phone/texting distractions, not 100% drug caused.
Those drugs cause far more impairment and are far more dangerous than cannabis.
If you and a doctor agree that cannabis helps you, you should be allowed to use it responsibly. I just don't understand the argument of singling out this one plant when far worse has been legal for decades.