cannabisnews.com: Time to Clear the Smoke!





Time to Clear the Smoke!
Posted by FoM on July 05, 1999 at 18:22:53 PT
By Bill Kaufmann - Calgary Sun
Source: The Calgary Sun
Driving under the influence of any mind-altering substance -- perhaps with the exception of coffee -- is a bad idea. That's the message emphasized by University of Toronto researchers who, nonetheless, had some interesting -- though not entirely surprising -- news to share on marijuana motoring.
Prohibition against marijuana has been massively counter-productive and expensive. Recent research into impairment and traffic accident data from several countries, states the report, indicate marijuana, when consumed alone, "does not significantly increase a driver's risk of causing an accident -- unlike alcohol." Both alcohol and cannabis affect driving performance, says the U of T's Alison Smiley, who adds those who smoked marijuana tended to be much more cautious behind the wheel due to the heightened awareness of their impairment. The data fits in well with the well-known paranoia effect, accompanied by the even more infamous "Twinkie effect" among dope smokers. By comparison, "subjects who received alcohol tend to drive in a more risky manner," said Smiley. While Smiley stops short of advocating the outright legalization of marijuana, she says the information could contribute to the debates over drug testing for transportation employees and the decriminalization of cannabis for medicinal use. "There's an assumption that because marijuana is illegal, it must increase the risk of an accident. We should try to just stick to the facts," said Smiley. They're facts that must seem mighty subversive to the powers-that-be struggling to ensure marijuana remains the criminally forbidden fruit. This, in a nation where 40,000 people a year die from the effects of legal tobacco. This obscene statistic takes the sheen off images of police officers gloating for the cameras to showcase their latest drug seizure. A portion of the resources now squandered on controlling the scourge of marijuana and other drugs would be better devoted to curtailing massively lethal smoking levels. But I'm not holding my breath. Even some Reform Party MPs have openly questioned the wisdom of Canada's continued focus on criminalizing the use of certain drugs. That shouldn't actually be surprising, since right-wing Reformers are champions of the philosophy of personal freedoms -- as long as those actions don't harm others. Jailing citizens for consuming substances not endorsed by the majority seems at obvious conflict with the Canadian notion of individual rights. And it's been massively counterproductive and expensive. Last month, Montreal Tory Senator Pierre Claude Nolin added his voice to calls for further review of Canada's war on drugs. The Controlled Drugs and Substances Act's implementation three years ago was accompanied by the recommendation a joint committee examine all of Canada's anti-drug laws and policies, notes Nolin. Typically, inertia has proven stronger than any recommendation. That reluctance, states Nolin correctly, is "nearly a matter of blindness, in some cases, voluntary blindness. That blindness has led successive governments, regardless of political stripe, to never consider drug use in Canada as a health issue, only a criminal issue." Perhaps we should be asking our blinkered politicians just what they've been smoking. Pubdate:July 5,1999 Copyright © 1999, Canoe Limited Partnership.All rights reserved. http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/kaufmann.html
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