Ganja & Driving

DdC · Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2005 2:57 am Post subject: Ganja & Driving

NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- September 29, 2005
Positive Marijuana Result Not Associated With Auto Crash Culpability
September 29, 2005 - Baltimore, MD, USA
Marijuana use, as indicated by the presence of cannabis metabolites, is not associated with crash culpability among injured drivers, according to data presented at the annual conference of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine.
Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21152.shtml

Paranoid Pot Smokers Drive More Carefully

Alcohol Impairs Driving More Than Marijuana

Cannabis May Make You a Safer Driver

U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(DOT HS 808 078), Final Report, November 1993:
"THC's adverse effects on driving performance appear relatively small"

Cannabisnews Search Cannabis & Driving

Cannabis & Driving by Erowid

While it is widely accepted that cannabis use can slow motor skills and reduce task-attention, increasing in severity with dose, research has shown that cannabis use is less likely to dangerously impair driving abilities than alcohol at similar levels of intoxication. Cannabis intoxication often makes smokers more aware of their impairment, causing them to slow down and become more cautious while also worsening reaction time and attention. Cannabis users often report that driving speeds are experientially 'faster' than normal: driving a given speed feels faster and more dangerous than the same speed does while sober.

There have been a number of studies which have looked at this issue and most have found that cannabis smoking does degrade driving performance. There is a little contradictory evidence about whether cannabis in combination with alcohol causes worse impairment than alcohol alone, but so far the data heavily favors the view that the combination substantially increases risks over either alone.

The research so far does not provide a clear answer to how much risk of accidents increase with moderate levels of cannabis intoxication, but only confirms that the risks of cannabis-alone impairment are lower than those of alcohol-alone impairment. The following are a collection of summaries & papers which look at the issue of cannabis & driving performance.

Executive Summary of Driving Impairment Effects of Alcohol & Cannabis (1994)

The influence of cannabis on driving, TRL, Britain (PDF - 1.5MB)
UK Lords Report On Cannabis & Driving
Alcohol impairs driving more than marijuana - New Scientist March 2002

"As someone who spent 35 years wearing a police uniform, I've come to believe that hundreds of thousands of law-enforcement officers commit felony perjury every year testifying about drug arrests."
- Joseph McNamara, former San Jose Chief of Police

The Joseph McNamara Collection

Pot Less Harmful Than Alcohol or Tobacco
Cannabisnews Search alcohol
Alcohol impairs driving more than marijuana

A single glass of wine will impair your driving more than smoking a joint. And under certain test conditions, the complex way alcohol and cannabis combine to affect driving behaviour suggests that someone who has taken both may drive less recklessly than a person who is simply drunk.
New Scientist March 2002

Marijuana Myth: "Marijuana Is A Major Cause Of Highway Accidents"

MARIJUANA DOES NOT CAUSE RECKLESS DRIVING
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and certain Wisconsin legislators have launched a new crusade against "drugged driving," with a heavy emphasis on marijuana. This crusade is largely based on scientific misinformation, and it could lead to the enactment of bad laws.

US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Reports

Marijuana And Actual Driving Performance - by Robbe, NHTSA, 1993
Marijuana Use And Driving, by Robbe 1994
Marijuana And Actual Driving Performance - by Robbe, NHTSA, 1999
Marijuana & Alcohol Combined Increase Impairment - NHTSA 1999

"Drivers under the influence of marijuana retain insight in their performance and will compensate where they can, for example, by slowing down or increasing effort. As a consequence, THC's adverse effects on driving performance appear relatively small."
Robbe, NHTSA 1993

Cannabis Campaigner's Guide to Cannabis & Driving

Schaffer Library References on Drugs and Driving

Cannabis And Road Safety: An Outline Of The Research Studies To Examine The Effects Of Cannabis On Driving Skills And On Actual Driving Performance

"Professor Hall considers cannabis's contribution to danger on the roads to be very small; in his view the major effect of cannabis use on driving may be in amplifying the impairments caused by alcohol."
UK Lord's Report, 1998

DUI Law & Cannabis

WhiteHouse's Steer Clear of Pot Campaign (2003)

Crancer Study, Washington Department of Motor Vehicles
"Simulated driving scores for subjects experiencing a normal social "high" and the same subjects under control conditions are not significantly different. However, there are significantly more errors for alcohol intoxicated than for control subjects"

The Cost Of Alcohol!

Antidrug Ad Blitz Criticized For Omitting Alcohol!

ONDCP has several slick television commercials on the subject. One shows dramatic auto accidents and two crash test dummies passing a joint while a serious voice says, "In a recent study, one in three reckless drivers tested positive for marijuana." Note the careful phrasing. The idea is to make viewers think that marijuana caused the reckless driving, without really saying that it did.
http://tinyurl.com/dnl7e

Cannabis/Driving Studies Australia: No Proof Cannabis Put Drivers At Risk (2001)
UK: Cannabis May Make You A Safer Driver (2000)
University Of Toronto Study Shows Marijuana Not A Factor In Driving Accidents (1999)
Australia: Cannabis Crash Risk Less: Study (1998)
Australia: Study Goes to Pot (1998)

"We didn't choose to fight this drug war, it chose us.
Now we have to do whatever it takes to fight this evil and change this system.
No more shattered lives!"
- Chris Conrad, author "Shattered Lives"

Marijuana Not a Factor in Driving Accidents March 29, 1999
The safety hazards of smoking marijuana and driving are overrated, says U of T researcher Alison Smiley.
Recent research into impairment and traffic accident reports from several countries shows that marijuana taken alone in moderate amounts does not significantly increase a driver's risk of causing an accident -- unlike alcohol, says Smiley, an adjunct professor in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering . While smoking marijuana does impair driving ability, it does not share alcohol's effect on judgment. Drivers on marijuana remain aware of their impairment, prompting them to slow down and drive more cautiously to compensate, she says.

Despite studies and common sense,
harsh anti-pot driving laws are becoming commonplace.
Vigilante narcs are out for blood
Government spies, fences and vigilantes on their way
Performance testing provides a valid alternative to zero tolerance drugged driving tests.

"Corruptisma repulica, plurimae leges.
(The more corrupt a republic, the more laws.)"
- Tacitus, "Annals III 27"

Two decades of research show that marijuana use may actually reduce driver accidents.
Government agencies block med-pot studies
UK cops are testing for "drugged drivers" despite studies which show stoners drive safely.
Ontario lawyer driving high, organizing rallies and fighting corruption.

"The American Medical Association knows of no evidence that marihuana is a dangerous drug."
- Dr. William Woodward of the American Medical Association, in hearings on the 1921 Marihuana Tax Act

Science shows pot makes safer drivers
Common marijuana myths disspelled, with sources
Regular medicinal pot user safe to drive while under the influence
It Was Not the Drug, but the Criminalisation
Setting Drug Impairment Levels Far Off

"No Increased Risk" for cannabis/driving

We can have justice whenever those who have not been injured by injustice
are as outraged by it as those who have been.
--Solon (594 B.C.)

DUI, Drunk Driving Arrest Consequences

DUI-DWI Convictions Can Happen to Anyone, Even Our Leaders
By age 40, about 20% of all males in the USA have received a DUI conviction. Of course, some men have received MORE than their allotted share, such as Vice President Richard (Dick) Cheney. Here are copies of President Bush’s 1976 DUI in Maine, followed by Cheney’s DUI records of two back-to-back DUI's in Wyoming.

Canada Would Ban Bush — But There Are Loopholes By Rebecca Cooper (ABC News)
W A S H I N G T O N, Nov. 3 — Even if George W. Bush is elected president, he may need special permission to get into Canada because of his arrest for drunken driving.

Dick Cheney's Youthful Indiscretions

Bush Jr.'s Skeleton Closet

Convicted of drunk driving. Lied repeatedly to cover up his arrest.

BUSH'S BOOZE CRISIS By JENNIFER LUCE and DON GENTILE
Faced with the biggest crisis of his political life, President Bush has hit the bottle again, The National Enquirer can reveal. Bush, who said he quit drinking the morning after his 40th birthday, has started boozing amid the Katrina catastrophe. Family sources have told how the 59-year-old president was caught by First Lady Laura downing a shot of booze at their family ranch in Crawford, Texas, when he learned of the hurricane disaster.

Bushwhacked: Jenna Bush's drinking incident
The president's twin daughters have been caught trying to buy beer using fake ID. But, asks Katie Roiphe, what's all the fuss about? They're just teenagers bringing a touch of colour to the White House

D.E.A.th Deceptions

**Mystic Power** · Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2005 3:20 am Post subject:

Excellent post.

Harvard University came to the same conclusion in the mid '70s, and it is my understanding that insurance actuaries reflect supporting statistics.

Follow Your Bliss,
Ben
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"In Lak'ech"
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HighRising · Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2005 7:00 am Post subject:

While it may not be as much of an impairment as being drunk, it still affects your reflexes, and I never drive under the influence.

If was to have an accident that injured another while driving stoned, I don't think I could forgive myself on that one.
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Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.
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**Ferre** · Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2005 11:50 am Post subject:

I have been driving for the past 25+ years, bikes, cars, trucks, anything that can drive and I have a 80% no-claim bonus on my insurance for driving safe al this time without any accidents. (I use to drive around 50000km/year)

No listen to this: I am using cannabis every single day all my life, even on the day I did my driving tests for my licence. According to my insurance I'm one of the safest drivers around and I know for sure that cannabis use does not cause any risk for driving in my personal case, that's proven by now.
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indicaspice · Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2005 4:38 pm Post subject:

**Brother Adam** · Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2005 11:45 pm Post subject:

You mean you can drive without cannabis? Shocked

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“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”

-James Madison

Police officers acquitted for beating a 64 yr old man recently in New Orleans. In the words of their defense attorney "all he had to do was comply"....and they wouldn't have fractured his face.

**Torkel** · Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2005 1:45 am Post subject:

Ferre wrote:

**Ferre** · Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2005 9:36 am Post subject:

Well, my father wrecked lots of cars too, the man had many accidents because of his 'temperament' whle driving, he doesn't drink or smoke but his "attitude' in traffic made him have many accidents. He was always driving like a madman.

That's another thing I learned about driving, some people are dangerous drivers without any drugs, they drive dangerous because of their personality. How to test that eh?
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indicaspice · Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2005 7:10 pm Post subject: