420-ndr - Page 6

 

Both alcohol and low doses of cannabis impaired drivers’ ability to maintain lane position and significantly increased subjects’ reaction time. Neither low doses of alcohol nor THC significantly increased subjects’ total number of collisions.

In terms of overall driving performance, subjects administered cannabis performed in a manner similar to drivers with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05, authors determined.

"The present study reveals that although some similarities in the degree of impairment could be observed – mainly with the lower level of THC and alcohol, where both increased reaction time and [lane position variability] – some discrepancies also appeared between the two drugs," authors concluded. "In particular, subjects seemed to be aware of their impairment after THC intake and tried to compensate by driving slower; alcohol seemed to make them overly confident and caused them to drive faster than in control sessions."

Two recent examinations of fatal accident crash data indicate that alcohol, even at low doses, greatly increases drivers’ crash risk compared to cannabis. A 2007 case-control study published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health reported that US drivers with blood alcohol levels of 0.05 percent were three times as likely to have engaged in unsafe driving activities prior to a fatal crash as compared to individuals who tested positive for marijuana. Similarly, a 2005 review of French auto accident data reported that drivers who tested positive for any amount of alcohol had a four times greater risk of having a fatal accident than did drivers who tested positive for marijuana in their blood.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, "Effects of THC on driving performance, physiological state, and subjective feelings relative to alcohol," appears in Accident Analysis and Prevention. Additional information regarding marijuana use and on-road accident risk is available in the NORML report "Cannabis and Driving: A Scientific and Rational Review," available online at: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7459.

Myth: Today's marijuana is more potent and more harmful than it was many years ago.
Fact: There is no medical evidence that shows high-potency marijuana is more harmful than low-potency marijuana. Marijuana is literally one of the least toxic substances known. High-potency marijuana is actually preferable because less is of it consumed to obtain the desired effect; thereby reducing the amount of smoke that enters the lungs and lowering the risk of any respiratory health hazards. Claiming that high-potency marijuana is more harmful than low-potency marijuana is like claiming wine is more harmful than beer.

Myth: Marijuana is addicting.
Fact: Marijuana is not physically addicting. Medical studies rank marijuana as less habit forming than caffeine. The legal drugs of tobacco (nicotine) and alcohol can be as addicting as heroin or cocaine, but marijuana is one of the least habit forming substances known. 

Myth: Smoking marijuana can cause cancer and serious lung damage.
Fact: There chance of contracting cancer from smoking marijuana is minuscule. Tobacco smokers typically smoke 20+ cigarettes every day for decades, but virtually nobody smokes marijuana in the quantity and frequency required to cause cancer. A 1997 UCLA study (see page 9) concluded that even prolonged and heavy marijuana smoking causes no serious lung damage. Cancer risks from common foods (meat, salt, dairy products) far exceed any cancer risk posed by smoking marijuana. Respiratory health hazards and cancer risks can be totally eliminated by ingesting marijuana in baked foods. 

Ok, Uber.  I wasn't saying that every drug user or dealer is violent.  My point was that Marijuana is not necesarily the safe, fun drug that people make it out to be.  I find it to be a common misconception that pot heads are peaceful and never cause any trouble and are never violent.  It's smply not true.  You can read the papers, most of the crime in today's society has a basis in drugs.  That is a fact.  It's a commonly recognized fact that guns and drugs go together.

So is every drug user violent, of course not.  Is every drug dealer violent; no.  Now are most violent crimes connected in one way or another to drugs:  I'd say yes. Have most violent offenders used drugs in their life including weed; I think so.   I am not saying that the vast majority of pot smokers are dangerous.   I would say that a large percantage of pot dealers and other dope dealers can be violent, it's a dangerous business. 

To answer your question I'd say that a high percantage of people that I pull over on  traffic stops and have distribution quantities of weed or other drugs have a prior criminal history.  This criminal history usually includes things like assault, robbery, firearms charges, burglary etc. 

I don't put pot, meth, crack, or heroin in the same category as far as users go.  I would put them in the same category as far as drug delaers go though. 

I don't think people should drink and drive or use drugs (including Marijuana and prescription drugs) and drive. 

JMO,

Jim

Myth: Marijuana is a significant cause of emergency room admissions.
Fact: The U.S. government reports that marijuana-related emergency room episodes are increasing. The government counts an emergency room admission as a marijuana-related episode if the word marijuana appears anywhere in the medical record. If a patient tests positive for marijuana because he/she used marijuana several days before the incident occurred, if a drunk driver admits he/she also smoked some marijuana, or if anyone involved in the incident merely possessed marijuana, the government counts the emergency room admission as a "marijuana-related episode." Less than 0.2% of all emergency room admissions are "marijuana related." This so-called marijuana-causes-emergencies statistic was carefully crafted by the government to make marijuana appear dangerous. 

I guess we posted at the same time.  It'll take a while to go through all of your posts. Give

My boyfriend wrote somemore........   I have also seen people very violent that use only marijuana. Alot of people don't realize the physical symptoms that marijuana does to people. One of the key things to look for is an accelerated pulse rate (just like methamphetamines and PCP). Alot of the homicides up here are from marijuana. Things like deals gone bad, robberies, and home invasions. When we are dealing with these people it is very dangerous. Most are armed and are willing to use those weapons to protect their crops/stash.  This is if they are under the influence of marijuana or not. And if it comes to going to jail, alot of them will fight.   As far as health effects. I see alot of damage from marijuana. Its everywhere up here. People that can no longer work that hang out at the freeway offramps. People that are in the hospital with cancer that have never smoked anything but marijuana. Also us the taxpayers are paying for these people since they can't afford or have the ability anymore to care for themselves.   As far as DUIs go, yes I think they are just as dangerous as someone under the influence of alcohol. I will arrest someone for driving under the influence of alcohol, marijuana, meth, herion, PCP, prescription drugs, or anything else that effects their ability to drive. I have arrested and gotten convictions for people driving under the influence of prescription drugs. I have also arrested and gotten convictions for people being 0.04 with alcohol. Alot of people don't realize that being 0.08 or above just means two counts of DUI, one for being under the influence (which can be any amount of alcohol as long as the driver is impaired) and the other for being 0.08 or above.   I work in the Emerald Triangle of Northern CA. I see the ill effects of marijuana just about everyday.  

You could not drag me kicking and screaming to California......  and you must live in the very worst part.
Plus for the record I see much BS from both camps.
Remove the monitary gains and the problem with solve itself.

Remove the criminals from our society and the improvements would triple ten times over.

Its the human element you must deal with.

OMG. This is ridiculous. On a dog forum, no less.

Like people have to be high to be violent? Or non-violent? Or sober? Or drunk? Let's face it; some people are violent and hateful. Why don't we stop blaming every horrible thing people do on some substance and start blaming the breakdown of society in general? Gee, gangbangers in shitty neighborhoods are violent? (Sorry to be presumptuous and demographically-biased, but the situations described led me to this assertion) WHAT?! LOL. It must be the pot. Can't be that they simply have no morals or respect for life.

No one takes into account the fact that we have violent crimes over marijuana b/c it's illegal...therefore, worth money and worth protecting. People kill each other over all kinds or insane things. Anytime you mix poor morals and lack of ethics with something monetarily valuable, you have a recipe for the potential for violence.

If only all the people who actually smoke pot would admit to it, people would realize that it is so widespread that it cannot possibly be solely responsible for all the ills that it is blamed on. But the image the world gets of potheads is either the lazy, confused, leftover hippie or the gangbanger walking his Pit/Mastiff cross down the street w/his weapons dragging his already-too-low pants down even further. We never hear anything about the responsible parents who still smoke pot, or the extremely successful business owners, or just the average Joe who you would never guess gets high every night. To say all potsmokers are one thing or another is as ridiculous as saying everyone w/brown hair is a certain way; it is far, far more common than people will acknowledge.

Oh, and I don't drive better stoned. I drive too slowly. But I have far less road rage!

Jenni78 hit the nail on the head