Marijuana legalization associated with a decrease in traffic deaths

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The research does not find it to be more dangerous, it finds it to be less dangerous.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2004.00744.x/abstract;jsessionid=666938BD281BE43AB94884B0CD7FC02D.f01t04?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false
(Gable, on the study: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/12/19/should-teenagers-get-high-instead-of-drunk/marijuana-is-far-less-toxic-than-alcohol-or-cocaine)

http://eeg.sagepub.com/content/40/1/31.short

http://jop.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/09/03/0269881111414751

That is just the tip of the iceburg of very solid studies.

Do you have any research that shows that it is more dangerous?

[AFK]

Here is a website, for starters, that is researched and cited that pushes back against the myths of marijuana being safe and harmless.

http://www.ndsu.edu/alcoholinfo/students/marijuana_myths_facts/

I recently had an article published that lays out other facts, but of course newspapers don't print the footnotes, but when I'm back in thr office I can dig those out as I don't have it saved on my iPhone.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Here is a website, for starters, that is researched and cited that pushes back against the myths of marijuana being safe and harmless.

http://www.ndsu.edu/alcoholinfo/students/marijuana_myths_facts/

I recently had an article published that lays out other facts, but of course newspapers don't print the footnotes, but when I'm back in thr office I can dig those out as I don't have it saved on my iPhone.

Hmm, that isn't an academic study, and it doesn't say anything about relative risk. If you have any academic studies that are published in peer-reviewed journals I am interested in seeing them.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

If you cannot provide sources to support your assertions, I will again ask that you refrain from posting claims of fact in this thread.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

In other words, I am not OK with this thread being hijacked as a "Marijuana is bad" thread. That is not what this thread is for. You have had enough of those threads, this does not need to be another one of those threads. If you cannot stay on the topic of relative risk, please do not post in this thread.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Thread split by request.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Just anecdotal, but when I did drive a car I really hated driving without being high. Most people I know drive high, whilst smoking even.

It's nowhere near the same as driving drunk.

Driving drunk impairs your ability to drive, every time. Weed does not.

It does not because it does not completely rob you of judgement, nor does it have the same effect on balance and coordination.

Stoned drivers are not necissarily cautious, imo. It simply doesn't interfere with the process the same way.

Sure, you take someone who never smokes weed, give em a big ol dose, and they'll probably hug the curb and be dumbasses. But most stoners are fully capable of functioning in just about any condition, generally.

I know lots and lots of stoners, pretty much everyone in my social circle. The idea that none of them would drive when high is silly.

Almost all of my interactions with stoners and casual users was in the college experimentation phase. Do you think that might explain the difference in our experiences?

[Salty]

Just anecdotal, but when I did drive a car I really hated driving without being high. Most people I know drive high, whilst smoking even.

It's nowhere near the same as driving drunk.

Driving drunk impairs your ability to drive, every time. Weed does not.

It does not because it does not completely rob you of judgement, nor does it have the same effect on balance and coordination.

Stoned drivers are not necissarily cautious, imo. It simply doesn't interfere with the process the same way.

Sure, you take someone who never smokes weed, give em a big ol dose, and they'll probably hug the curb and be dumbasses. But most stoners are fully capable of functioning in just about any condition, generally.

I know lots and lots of stoners, pretty much everyone in my social circle. The idea that none of them would drive when high is silly.

Almost all of my interactions with stoners and casual users was in the college experimentation phase. Do you think that might explain the difference in our experiences?

Probably. There's this social thing, people act the way they think high people are supposed to act. Which is always Very Silly. And pretty much everyone starts out getting loopy. Most people that do smoke a lot and drive started smoking well before or at about the same time they learned to drive.



The first time I drove very high it felt like my arms were on sticks I was propping up. I drove super slow, probably should not have driven at all.

But that was, like, 11 years ago. I'm not saying people should do it, merely that it's different from alcohol. You don't get a giant leap of false confidence and emotional burst mixed with poor control over your body the after a couple of bong hits the same as as many dirty martinis.

[East Coast Hustle]

Yeah, basically you might forget whether you just turned right or left but your vision and reflexes are still fine.

[Reginald Ret]

Uhm, are we talking about driving while having smoked weed but still feeling fine or are we talking about driving stoned out of your gourd? Because the latter sounds like a really stupid idea.
The sneaky thing with alcohol is that even a small amount will increase your reactiontime, usually without you noticing.

[East Coast Hustle]

I don't think anyone said it was a good idea, but people do it and it seems as though most peoples' experience is that even though it's not a good idea, it's still a whole lot less dangerous than driving while impaired on alcohol. Which is, I believe, what this thread is about.

[Reginald Ret]

I don't think anyone said it was a good idea, but people do it and it seems as though most peoples' experience is that even though it's not a good idea, it's still a whole lot less dangerous than driving while impaired on alcohol. Which is, I believe, what this thread is about.

True.

[Salty]

Tolerance is very much different between the two. What is the measure of tolerance and how do they compare?

No matter how tolerant to alcohol you are, there is usually a very hard and fast limit to what you body can physically handle. At some point it will kill you. Before that happens there is a large grey area of how human beings are actually affected by it.

For example, I do not ever drink and drive, but I never really lose my shit when drinking. I keep pretty good control, I might get a little more mouthy, but I'm plenty mouthy without booze. That doesn't keep me from falling over if I have too much, or being racked with pain the next day.

These physical effects are harsh and severe.

Weed tolerance is a very different thing. It takes an awful lot of weed to make me feel overwhelmed by my environment, or overly giggly, or to lose my grip on where I'm at and what I'm doing. By that point the very last thing I want in the world is to be in a car, mostly because while driving you are subject to The Man's Iron Fist a lot more than when not in a car.

How do you measure the effect of weed in the body as being dangerous? Too impaired to drive? Blood/Alcohol may be accurate, depending on the machine and the cop, no doubt. Sobriety tests for weed would look like...?

"Sir, could you please watch C-Span without either falling asleep or punching walls? Sir, I'm gonna have to insist."

[Salty]

I've known plenty of people who stopped ruining their lives with alcohol by switching to weed. This study shows that that's good for public safety generally, which is cool.

I just ran into a family member who lives in town, I never see him because he's a drunk. Stole whiskey from me once. But he's totally fine with a single beer, and then a bunch of smoking. He's got a stable job cooking at a hospital.

In his thick Hungarian accent he says, "In winter what else there...but smoke and pornography?" He shrugs.  It's nice when people stop using their bodies as an alcohol disposal unit.

[Telarus]

I'm glad this is getting serious research. I remember posting some links about this a while back, something about states next to states which had legal MMJ having lower drunk driving fatalities. Can't find where I posted those right now, because googleing for "site:principiadiscordia.com driving cannabis" turn up nearly every pot thread we have.