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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Australia: Safe cannabis levels defined for driving
6 minutes
Wednesday 28 Nov 2007 Drink-drivers know they’re in trouble if their blood alcohol tops 0.05. This week, researchers suggest an equivalent limit for cannabis. A panel of experts from Australia and elsewhere considered the epidemiological evidence regarding cannabis use and driving, with an eye to developing a legal limit for safe motoring. “Limited epidemiological studies indicate that serum concentrations of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) below 10 ng/mL are not associated with an elevated accident risk,” they report in Addiction. Comparing meta-analyses of experimental studies, they also found that a THC concentration in the serum of 7-10 ng/mL causes the same level of impairment as a blood alcohol level of 0.05%. A blood cannabis limit of that level “offers reasonably reliable separation of drivers whose driving is in fact impaired by cannabis from those who are not impaired,” the authors suggest. But under Australian laws, such limits are irrelevant. Current roadside drug testing in Victoria and elsewhere, takes a zero-tolerance approach. Any driver found with detectable cannabis markers in his or her saliva has committed an offence. Drug researcher Wayne Hall worries that those policies are a threaten to civil liberties. “Should the authorities have the power to force citizens to incriminate themselves when they have not committed a driving offence or been involved in an accident?” he writes in an editorial. He says there is no evidence thee laws save lives, and that the success of roadside drug testing needs to be evaluated. “If evidence of an impact on drug driving is forthcoming, citizens should have the right to debate whether these public health benefits offset the threats to democratic freedoms.” http://www.6minutes.com.au/articles/z1/view.asp?id=137358
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