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Originally Posted by Grapesoda
read a bit about the THC being present in 3x's the number of DEAD bodies from traffic fatalities since 1999 in the medical weed states....  |
What was the drug you are/were addicted to, cocaine or heroin? You seem to be suggesting that cannabis is in the same class as narcotics or alcohol.
More to the point, I haven't seen anyone advocating for ingesting cannabis and driving.
As was noted in an earlier post, simply having cannabis present in the bloodstream does not indicate a level of impairment:
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Because marijuana stays in the bloodstream for a short time, blood tests for marijuana are usually not used, except in the case of automobile accidents and some roadside sobriety check points. Blood or saliva tests can show current intoxication. However, unlike blood alcohol concentration tests, they do not indicate a level of intoxication or impairment.
On the other hand, urine tests for marijuana metabolites can only show recent marijuana use, not intoxication or impairment, because of the time required between smoking and the metabolites being eliminated in the urine. However, because many employers have a zero tolerance for drug use, most workplaces use urine tests for any recent use of drugs.
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A separate study ? also based on FARS data ? found that in states where medical marijuana was approved, traffic fatalities decrease by as much as 11 percent during the first year after legalization. Written by researchers at the University of Colorado, Oregon and Montana State University, the paper was published in 2013 in the Journal of Law & Economics.
Those authors theorized pot, for some, becomes a substitute for alcohol. They cited a recent, 13-percent drop in drunk-driving deaths in states where medical marijuana is legal.
?Marijuana reform is associated with ? a decrease in traffic fatalities, most likely due to its impact on alcohol consumption,? said Michael Elliott, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group, a trade association in Colorado.
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Better measurement methods for detecting cannabis impairment should be developed, as well as more education about not driving impaired.
It's important to discuss the facts soberly.
ADG