cannabisnews.com: How Much Does Marijuana Impact Your Driving?
function share_this(num) {
 tit=encodeURIComponent('How Much Does Marijuana Impact Your Driving?');
 url=encodeURIComponent('http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/28/thread28609.shtml');
 site = new Array(5);
 site[0]='http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[1]='http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit.php?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[2]='http://digg.com/submit?topic=political_opinion&media=video&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[3]='http://reddit.com/submit?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[4]='http://del.icio.us/post?v=4&noui&jump=close&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 window.open(site[num],'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=620,height=500');
 return false;
}






How Much Does Marijuana Impact Your Driving?
Posted by CN Staff on June 23, 2015 at 04:51:51 PT
By Eliza Gray
Source: Time
USA -- A rigorous federal research study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse offers new data on the effects of marijuana on driving performance.The exact impact of marijuana on driving ability is a controversial subject—and it’s become more important states continue to loosen their drug laws. And, while drunk driving is on the decline in the U.S., driving after having smoked or otherwise consumer marijuana has become more common. According to the most recent national roadside survey from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of weekend nighttime drivers, 8.3 percent had some alcohol in their system and 12.6 percent tested positive for THC—up from 8.6 percent in 2007.
It is illegal in all states to drive under the influence of anything, but years of work went in to establishing the .08 breathe alcohol limit that exists in most states. The question is whether we can establish a similar threshold for pot.To find out, the study recruited 18 occasional cannabis smokers, 13 of them men, between the ages 21 and 37. The participants took six 45-minute drives in a driving simulator—a 1996 Malibu sedan mounted in a 7.3 diameter dome—at the University of Iowa. Each drive tested a different combination of high or low concentration THC, alcohol, and placebos (to create a placebo, participants were given fruit juice with alcohol swabbed in the rim, topped of with 1ml alcohol, to mimic alcohol’s smell and taste).The researchers looked at 250 parameters of driving ability, but this paper focused on three in particular: weaving within the lane, the number of times the car left the lane, and the speed of the weaving. While alcohol had an effect on the number of times the car left the lane and the speed of the weaving, marijuana did not. Marijuana did show an increase in weaving. Drivers with blood concentrations of 13.1 ug/L THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, showed increase weaving that was similar to those with a .08 breath alcohol concentration, the legal limit in most states. For reference, 13.1 ug/L THC is more than twice the 5 ug/L numeric limit in Washington and Colorado.Dr. Marilyn Huestis, the principal investigator in the study, says it is important to note that the study looked at the concentration of THC in the driver’s system while they were driving. This is quite different from the concentration typically measured in a drugged driver out on the road, whose blood may not be checked until several hours after an arrest, allowing the THC level to drop considerably from the time they were driving.Huestis says the researchers are looking at how to estimate how long it takes for THC concentrations in the blood to drop. Huestis believes that the 5 ug/L limit is not strict enough, particularly when you take into account those with low tolerance.The study also found that pot and alcohol have more of an impact on driving when used together. Drivers who used both weaved within lanes, even if their blood THC and alcohol concentrations were below the threshold for impairment taken on their own. “We know cannabis is primarily found with a low dose of alcohol,” Huestis says. “Many young people have a couple beers and then cannabis.”Smoking pot while drinking a little alcohol also increased THC’s absorption, making the high more intense. Similarly, THC delayed the peak of alcohol impairment, meaning that it tended to take longer for someone using both to feel drunk. Such data is important to educate the public about pot’s effects before they get on the road.“I think this has added really good knowledge from a well-designed study to add to the current debate,” on marijuana’s effects on road safety, says Dr. Marilyn Huestis, the principal investigator in the study, which was conducted by researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.Source: Time Magazine (US)Author: Eliza Gray Published: June 23, 2015Copyright: 2015 Time Inc.Contact: letters time.comWebsite: http://www.time.com/time/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/ReaDCL72CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help 
     
     
     
     




Comment #4 posted by runruff on June 24, 2015 at 07:52:22 PT
Collusion 
The American government in collusion with mega-industry gave us the immoral, unconstitutional self serving ruse, The War on Drugs.They used an overt criminal ploy to subvert the constitution in oder to kill and rob our citizens. The asset forfeiture  grabathon taking place still, is an abomination to both our protected rights and the organic rules of human dignity. There are many homosaphians around today who'S DNA is still tainted with the early in breeding with Neanderthal. Neanderthals were human like but there brains had not evolved enough to experience empathy. Empathy is the very soul of the human being. Without empathy we are unfeeling toward, beauty, art, music , spituality, love.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by Sam Adams on June 23, 2015 at 11:07:03 PT
NIDA
>>>another biased study that backfiredLucas, so true. There are plenty of studies on driving safety and MJ - a landmark one came out from National Highway Safety & Transportation Agency last year showing that cannabis is safe for driving.Of course Time does not note in the article that the NIDA is a severly biased bureaucracy that has been directly ordered by the feds to work against MJ legalization and to prevent any research that shows benefits of MJ.It looks like NIDA though they could get a negative result by focusing on exclusively on lane violations, but that backfired.Based on what we know about the ECS, cannabis will never affect driving that much no matter how many times they "study" it - it just doesn't affect the critical nerve receptors the way alcohol does. It's simple and the science is never going to change.yes runruff - "dude, we are we???" "I think we're parked!"
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by Lucas on June 23, 2015 at 09:23:47 PT:
another biased study that backfired
"While alcohol had an effect on the number of times the car left the lane and the speed of the weaving, marijuana did not. "
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by runruff on June 23, 2015 at 06:10:33 PT
Driving while stoned?
Makes me think of Cheech and Chong driving down the road with bellows of smoke pouring from the windows. They eventually end up parked half on half off the curb when a cop walked up...Tommy said they were smoking ," Labadore, man"!
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment