Stoned drivers are a lot safer than drunk ones

[Winston]

A new study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finds that drivers who use marijuana are at a significantly lower risk for a crash than drivers who use alcohol. And after adjusting for age, gender, race and alcohol use, drivers who tested positive for marijuana were no more likely to crash than who had not used any drugs or alcohol prior to driving

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Washington Post

[Tarryall]

Wow. Surprised they made that info public.

Colorado just released a report that drunk driving is down but stoned driving is up. Time for more states to adopt recreational pot to make the roads safer?

[DMCDD]

I think you're painting a kind of rosy picture there for stoned people.

From your article:

So, should we all assume that we're safe to blaze one and go for a joyride whenever the whimsy strikes us? Absolutely not. There's plenty of evidence showing that marijuana use impairs key driving skills. If you get really stoned and then get behind the wheel, you're asking for trouble.

What we do need, however, are better roadside mechanisms for detecting marijuana-related impairment. Several companies are developing pot breathalyzers for this purpose.

The point I get from the article is that there needs to be a better indicator of 'stoned' than THC blood levels, which remain elevated long after the negative effect being stoned has on driving skills has worn off.

Here's the effects being stoned has on your driving skills... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23220273

The article is not a defense for stoned driving. It is a call for a better test of stoned driving than THC levels.

[Cinnamongirl]

Nice way to rationalize. They are both dangerous.

[Tarryall]

BAC & THC can both read high if you are a daily user of either booze or pot. Builds up in the blood stream even if you are sober, or can drive safely after a couple beers compared to someone who only drinks a few times a year.

[ChromaKey]

Of course, the numbers aren't comparable in any way, and the science isn't there. We don't have a highway pot death pandemic, nor will we ever, because it's nothing like alcohol in effect. People shouldn't smoke weed and drive, but it's not highways safety that would benefit from an attack on driver lifestyle, here. It's the police equipment industry, the prison industry, and the fascist elements in police fraternities and American politics whose eyes are lighting up with the new possibilities to crush necks with jackboots. Save us from the evildoers, not the stoners.

[Tarryall]

Personally I see more dangerous driving from distracted drivers.

[DMCDD]

Stoned people need to stay off the roads until they sober up, same as drinkers. It's silly to equate the two other than that. They affect the brain in different ways, and create different challenges to driving. It's ;egal to smoke now, so if this thread was trying to help justify legality, give it a rest.

Alcohol is pretty easy to detect, and levels causing inebriation are fairly well defined. The state is now struggling with a legal definition for impairment due to pot. I don't agree with the current standards, but they have to start somewhere.

And yes, the jack booted thugs do need to get the truly impaired off the roads, regardless of their personal choice of the source of impairment. We pay them to do that, and I expect them to keep it up.

[ChromaKey]

And yes, the jack booted thugs do need to get the truly impaired off the roads, regardless of their personal choice of the source of impairment. We pay them to do that, and I expect them to keep it up.

I'm sorry, sir, your skin is much to brown to be driving -here- at this time of the night. Please step out of the vehicle, keep your hands where I can see them....

[Cinnamongirl]

And yes, the jack booted thugs do need to get the truly impaired off the roads, regardless of their personal choice of the source of impairment. We pay them to do that, and I expect them to keep it up.

I'm sorry, sir, your skin is much to brown to be driving -here- at this time of the night. Please step out of the vehicle, keep your hands where I can see them....

Chromakey, jeez Louise. Who said anything about that. And I am sorry I will not agree with the argument that weed is safe and no one ever gets hurt by it. It is pretty much the same as alcohol period.