Pot-Positive Traffic Fatalities Up 100% in Colorado

Cybercast News Service ^ | November 26, 2014 - 9:48 AM | Cully Stimson

[Olog-hai]

… The data coming out of Colorado is exhibit A on why voters should reject legalization efforts. Even the Democratic governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper, said that legalizing marijuana in Colorado was “reckless.” As I have written at Heritage, pot-positive traffic fatalities have gone up 100 percent since voters legalized pot in Colorado. This is true despite the fact that overall traffic fatalities in Colorado have gone down since 2007.

A report by a federal grant-funded agency in Colorado found seven specific negative side effects that pot legalization has caused in Colorado:

1. the majority of DUI drug arrests involve marijuana;
2. youth consumption of marijuana has increased;
3. drug-related suspensions/expulsions increased 32 percent over a 5-year period and a majority was for marijuana;
4. an increase in college users;
5. almost 50 percent of Denver arrestees tested positive for marijuana;
6. marijuana-related emergency room visits increased 57 percent from 2011-2013; and
7. marijuana-related hospitalizations has increased 82 percent since 2008.

Perhaps people are also aware of new scientific studies pointing to the inherent dangers of marijuana. For example, the British health research journal The Lancet Psychiatry recently concluded that teens who smoke marijuana are “also 60 percent less likely to graduate college and seven times more likely to attempt suicide.” …

[ViLaLuz]

Unfluence... Hee hee hee

[ifinnegan]

Your post is 100% right in.

It’s about getting stoned.

In CA and CO.

[South40]

Yeah, I’m inder the unflunence and that affected my typing. :-P

[ifinnegan]

“Typically, this kind of statistic means the total number went from 1 to 2, and that it was a passenger that tested positive. “

So that is your claim?

Your final answer?

[umgud]

Mile HIGH city?

[Secret Agent Man]

if drugs/drug users truly affected only themselves, i’d say let em do it.

but they don’t. we are not living in some fantasy libertarian vacuum where the negative personal acts of someone only affect that person and nobody else.

and the law of unintended consequences has killed more people than i’ve got nickels.

[JRandomFreeper]

Yep. Booze is legal where I am. I don't partake very often.

If marijuana were legal, I wouldn't bother.

I can get dope easy enough now, even though illegal. Don't want it. Mostly, don't want the booze either, but I do like a beer sometimes.

Laws won't change my habits.

/johnny

[moehoward]

Only 100%? So did Cheech or Chong collect the stats.

[TexasFreeper2009]

anyone with half a brain knew people high on pot would start killing people in their cars when their reaction time diminishes.

[eldoradude]

From the article:

More to the point, Colorado traffic fatalities between 2007 and 2012 involving operators testing positive for marijuana use increased 100 percent over that period—from 39 in 2007 up to 78 in 2012.

[MUDDOG]

In Colorado and Washington state, the legal limit for DUI is 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood.

Michael Brown had 12 nanograms.

[Rodamala]

A study should be made before more states legalize.

I am confident there has been sufficient research performed on the matter previously. My tax dollars don't need to go towards yet another $14.3M government grant to some liberal jackass college professor that reveals that pot smokers are mostly tranquil, happy, horny, and/or hungry; and habitual pot smokers have a streak of laziness, social and personal irresponsibility, a general lack of motivation, and cognitive difficulties.

I would also like to see previous research on the mental disorder of homosexuality brought up... but that is another topic, completely.

[Secret Agent Man]

laws are there so we can ascribe punishment for negative societal behavior, that most often has a victim. it’s for justice.

not talking arbitrary, administrative/regulatory crap. but the concept of law for justice fromothers that are harmed by another’s actions. negligent or deliberate.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Anything for the government to keep its power over the people.

[Secret Agent Man]

and for any, many laws have a deterrent effect. if murder was just a $50 fine offense, how many more people would murder others?

[FlingWingFlyer]

I’m pretty sure we’re about to see the traffic fatalities caused by the Obamnesty illegal alien invaders start to skyrocket too..

[Secret Agent Man]

the only thing i’d be interested in regarding pot is being able to make an essential oil for cancer treatment.

[flaglady47]

“Whether it is legal or illegal has no bearing at all on whether or not people use it or do not use it.”

Hmmm, go to just about any Mid Eastern country and ask them whether their laws prevent what they consider bad behavior. Our laws aren’t draconian or have no teeth at all, or we end up just legalizing bad behavior. So, laws can indeed influence behavior. It just depends how stringent you want those laws to be.

Now, I actually don’t care who smokes marijuana within the confines of their home, but the minute they get in a car and start driving while under the influence, they are a lethal weapon as far as I am concerned. Same with alcohol. That’s when the tougher sanctions come in, because they are no longer just hurting themselves, but potentially others, as statistics will show.

[chris37]

I am not sure that our society’s slide towrd the abyss can be stopped.

What government shouts is lies. Whatever it is shouting at any given time is a lie, so it should be shunned all the time.

I can only answer your question as to where a person finds some sort of standard of behavior to hel steer them in life by saying where I found my answer.

When battling my demon of addiction, which should have killed me outright and most certainly wreaked havoc in my life, I asked God on a very dark day to give me the strength to walk away from this hell, and He did.

It took more strength than I ever imagined even existed, and very sadly I have seen it in few others. I fought this battle alone but with His help, and I am still here today and sober and enjoying viewing this world from behind clear eyes.

This is why I know that this is a battle that some of us have to fight in this world. For whatever reason it is a task that some are burdened with. Perhaps it is a test, but what I learned over many years of suffering is that only the souls that are tormented by that particular demon are the souls capable of defetaing that particular demon.

And the lessons learned from that struggle are precious and rare wisdom.

[JRandomFreeper]

For some, it doesn't matter what the law says. If murder was a $50 fine, lots of folks wouldn't do that.

And you conflate a crime with a singular victim to something criminalized because legislators thought it would be a good idea.

Big difference. Murder, stealing, fraud, etc... go back to the biggies in the Bible. Don't do those.

The laws against collecting rainwater? Meh... Some folks won't obey those laws if they think they are stupid.

/johnny