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Canada: Drugged Driving: Marijuana Not a Factor in Driving Accidents,

Stopthedrugwar.org

Friday 14 Apr 2006

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Moderate use of marijuana alone does not significantly increase a
driver's risk of causing a traffic accident, a Canadian researcher said
after conducting a "metanalysis" of existing research of the effects of
the weed on driving ability and poring over traffic accident statistics
from the US and Australia. University of Toronto researcher Alison
Smiley, an adjunct professor of mechanical and industrial engineering,
published her results last month after first presenting them a month
earlier for the American Academy of Forensic Science.

While smoking marijuana does impair driving ability, as does alcohol, it
crucially does not share alcohol's effects on judgment, Smiley said.
Drivers high on marijuana are aware of their impairment and act to
compensate for it by slowing down and driving more cautiously.

"Both substances impair performance," Smiley said in a University of
Toronto press release. "However, the more cautious behavior of subjects
who received marijuana decreases the drug's impact on performance. Their
behavior is more appropriate to their impairment, whereas subjects who
received alcohol tend to drive in a more risky manner."

While Smiley does not advocate legalizing the drug, she says her results
should be considered by those debating mandatory drug tests for users of
transportation equipment such as truck or train drivers, or the
decriminalization of marijuana for medical use. "There's an assumption
that because marijuana is illegal, it must increase the risk of an
accident. We should try to just stick to the facts."

Such facts could prove helpful in blunting the appeal of "drugged
driving" laws encouraged by the Office of National Drug Control Policy
for the past two years. In that period, a number of states have passed
laws under which a person could be convicted of impaired driving on the
basis of metabolites in the blood or urine -- whether or not the person
is actually impaired. Ohio was the latest state to do so, passing its
law just last week.



http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/431/driving1.shtml

 

 

 

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