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Marijuana users twice as likely to cause car crash, studies show

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"A 2007 study in Scotland found 15% of 537 drivers aged 17 to 39 had used marijuana within 12 hours."

I thought weed stayed in the blood and sweat for months, even after simply standing next to someone smoking it?

My own experience is that it actually slows you down to old granny speed and makes you paranoid as hell about an accident - which helps to adjust for the loss of reactions. I'm not condoning it but I fail to see how the test was accurate.

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This just in: perception-altering drugs alter perception. SHOCK!

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Prescription drugs also alter perception. Most of the pensioners are buzzing off their mind out here in France causing accidents.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

And I know why!!! That's cuz they reaching for that slice of yesterday's pizza in the passenger seat to calm the munchies and not paying attention while speeding at whooping 10 miles per hour

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This is the reason why:

"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?"

Then it was quiet again. My attorney had taken his shirt off and was pouring beer on his chest, to facilitate the tanning process. "What the hell are you yelling about?" he muttered, staring up at the sun with his eyes closed and covered with wraparound Spanish sunglasses. "Never mind," I said. "It's your turn to drive." I hit the brakes and aimed the Great Red Shark toward the shoulder of the highway. No point mentioning those bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough."

4 ( +4 / -0 )

People who use marijuana before driving are nearly twice as likely to cause a car crash as those not under the influence of alcohol or drugs,

How about comparing it with people who drink before driving? Are drunks five times as likely or less or more to cause a car crash as those who use marijuana? How fast were those pot heads going, anyway? Five, ten miles an hour?

And, while marijuana might be the most widely used illegal drug in the world, it isn't illegal in some places: Sarah Palin's Alaska, for one, and South Australia for two. (I think.)

Finally, love Hunter S. Thompson.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

another wtf report on JT. Bong!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

"Finally, love Hunter S. Thompson."

Me too Laguna, thanks for the memories.

Anyone who has driven under the effects and survived of a mixture of LSD, cocaine, amphetamines and whatever else they were tootin' at the same time is either bloody lucky, or super-human. Especially back in they day when purity was king.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Must be that time of year that Government grants are decided, appears spurious results that support the "so successful" WAR on drugs (50+ years and counting) are releasing these results to obtain funding. Using the mobile while driving must cause more than dope, and alcohol!!! Come on. Talking up a lost cause.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

This article sounds a lot like "scare propaganda".

0 ( +1 / -1 )

If you care to drive, drive with care.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

It takes a study to figure this out.... Wow!!!

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Twice as likely to cause a car crash as one of our venerable elders not being able to spot the difference between a brake and an accelerator? Not according to recent other news.

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People are funny. If you do a study to prove your point, people call it a waste of time and money because it's common sense and they already knew that. However, if no studies are done, they point out the fact that, "no, marijuana doesn't affect the way people drive. If it did, someone would have done a study on it."

Well, guess what, NOW a study has been done on it. I'm sure that it won't matter though because people will only believe what they want regardless.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

and South Australia for two.

The dope is a nope, nope in South Australia.

Slightly decriminalised - but very much illegal.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

So don't toke and drive. Or does this study and its publishers wish to take it further?

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Marijuana users twice as likely to cause car crash, studies show

Judging by what I see everyday, and what I read on here, I can only come to the conclusion that there are millions of closet pot-heads in Japan.

Prescription drugs also alter perception

I really don't get how driving on certain non-prescription medicines is allowed; I mean, I'm asthmatic, and inhalers don't have any side effects for non-asthmatics except raising heart rate a little, and yet I need to go to a hospital to get permission from a doctor to receive medicine that could save my life. Meanwhile, Taro Tanaka can get behind the wheel of a 1 ton+ machine after taking an over the counter cough medicine known to have drowsiness as a side effect, and legally be able to drive around whilst not clear of mind (I might add that this is not unique to Japan). What kind of reverse logic is that???

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Judging by what I see everyday, and what I read on here, I can only come to the conclusion that there are millions of closet pot-heads in Japan.

No. There are millions of meth users in Japan. Cannabis isn't so popular.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Marijuana users twice as likely to cause car crash, studies show

But at really slow speeds.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Or.....if that Marijuana user is a woman are they four times as likely to cause a car crash?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

How about comparing it with people who drink before driving? Are drunks five times as likely or less or more to cause a car crash as those who use marijuana? How fast were those pot heads going, anyway? Five, ten miles an hour?

Why compare with alcohol before driving? All this is is a study/analysis about the effects of marijuana before driving.

Nothing has caused as much destruction to humans as alcohol.And it's legal.This study has no credibility.

Why does it have no credibility? Because it shows that people under the influence of a substance are more likely to get into a car accident? Because it doesn't make a recommendation that Alcohol should be made illegal? Because they didn't do an analysis on the effects of alcohol, something that has been analyzed to death by now. This isn't a study about alcohol nor is it saying that marijuana should remain illegal. This is an analysis about the effects of marijuana on people when they drive. If you got an issue with the fact that alcohol is legal and marijuana is illegal take it up with government in the country you reside in.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

No one should drive unless completely sober. Problem is that lots of otherwise sober drivers are high on adrenalin from imagining they are great drivers. The ones who drive like they are king-of-the-road probably cause more fatal wrecks than others. This "story" is mere propoganda from the War-on-Drugs machine.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

You have to be an idiot to get high and then go behind the wheel.

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Marijuana use was confirmed by blood tests or self-reporting.

Was MJ the only drug they had in their systems when tested? I mean, it's possible it was, but I'm just curious if there weren't any other drugs in their systems which could have contributed to the results. Their wording is ambiguous.

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So is only illegal in South Australia as opposed to say, North Australia??

0 ( +0 / -0 )

A 2007 study in Scotland found 15% of 537 drivers aged 17 to 39 had used marijuana within 12 hours.

12 hours seems like a pretty silly range of time since someone who last smoked 12 hours before wouldn't still be feeling it. It makes the stat mostly useless.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

12 hours seems like a pretty silly range of time since someone who last smoked 12 hours before wouldn't still be feeling it. It makes the stat mostly useless.

Your right that is why if you read the article you would have read this:

Researchers found drivers who had used marijuana within three hours of beginning to drive had nearly double the risk of causing a collision, especially those that were fatal.

The part your quoting is to backup the claim that marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug. They are not using it to say its going to affect your ability to drive.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Yeah but it was Canada where they did the study...

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So many variables it makes it hard to comment.

Weed comes in such random strengths, and it also depends on whether the smoker/driver has already experience of a) smoking and b) driving after smoking.

Having said that, I would never do today what I used to do at college in the US...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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