Marijuana Car Crash Study: Smoking Before Getting Behind The Wheel Doubles Odds Of Crash

Having a BAC of 0.08% (the legal level) increases the likelihood of a crash 7.2 times.

Cannabis use (they don't mention how much) increases the likelihood of a crash 2 times.

Texting while driving increases the likelihood 23 times.

Although no one should drive under the influence of any substance, the cannabis user is still much safer than the alcohol user who is within legal limits in regards to the likelihood of being involved in a crash. They have curiously left out the data in regards to alcohol use. This is a fear mongering study with the intent of maintaining the ideological vilification of cannabis use.

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/safety/impaired/fact-sheet.shtml#bac

I don't drink at all (28 years sober). I don't smoke tobacco. Occasionally I inhale a small amount of bud (with a vaporizer) and I have medical clearance from my family doctor for an arthritic condition.
Here are some tips that have kept me accident free for 30 years:
1. Wait at least 1 hour before you drive after smoking, time perception changes in the first 15 to 30 minutes. Everything seems to go slower when you are first stoned. Then you get used to it.
2. Never drive stoned in bad weather. You may not feel the tires skidding or sliding on icy roads - also, snowflakes and raindrops are pretty when they hit the windshield but they'll screw up your depth perception. Stay overnight if possible or take a cab.
3. Never drive an unfamiliar car or vehicle while stoned. I once bought a new car and the first day I bought it I stayed at my brothers overnight. I realized I wasn't used to the steering or brakes yet.
4. Pot can make you drowsy, nap if you need to before you drive.
5. Get that bag of Doritos into you too that will lessen the effects.
6. If you get really buzzed, more than 2 joints worth, DO NOT DRIVE AT ALL for at least 5 hours after you do it.

Driving Under The Influence Of Marijuana Not Such A Bad Thing
From the LA WEEKLY,

"...This might sound counter-intuitive to you Sgt. Stedenko types, but driving under the influence of pot doesn't have much effect on one's road skills, at least according to a recent study by Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. The research, published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, found no differences in the driving skills of 85 subjects who got behind the wheel stone-cold sober and then tried the same obstacle course after having smoked a joint.

Of course, few stoners smoke just one joint (with 2.9 percent THC?), but it's still an eye-opening study. "No differences were found during the baseline driving segment (and the) collision avoidance scenarios," the authors wrote.

Once high, drivers did slow down, perhaps arguing that a stoned driver is an even safer driver. However, a statement on the study reads, driving while under the influence of alcohol, even at legal levels, mixed with some weed smokage, seems to increase your chances at ending up bending fenders. Stoner translation: Cookies good. Milk and cookies bad..."

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2010/06/driving_while_stoned_pot.php

The posters who are arguing about whether smoking pot before driving is less safe than drinking before driving or talking on a cell phone while driving are missing the point. All three are dangerous.

What ever happened to just driving? You know, driving WITHOUT being drunk, high, talking or a cellphone, or fiddling with other gadgets? If we could all set aside our own personal gratification and be sober and pay attention to the road while we drive, then the roads would be safer for all of us.

It doesn't matter if the statistic true or not. YES no matter what being inebriated will increase the chance of an accident. what we should be doing is comparing this to the statistics of alcohol and cell phone use while driving; you know, and then maybe make an informed decision.

Plain and simple, if smoking pot just before driving a vehicle doubles the chance of an accident, don't take the 50/50 chance? Just keep banning plant and wait for a safe pot-pill! These idiots who still want to legalize pot should take two trips in a bus on the steep twisty Colorado mountain interstate with their families in which the driver just smoked pot.

Two British studies PROVED the dangers of smoking pot. One proved that pot brings about dementia years sooner. The other proves that if a person is borderline mentally ill, or has a genetic predisposition to mental illness, pot pushes the person over the threshold. Just look at what happened with the Arizona shooter of a congresswoman. He had a bad breakup and became a pothead before taking up a cause which the congresswoman didn't address. So, if you want to be strapped to a bed or tranquilized to keep from fighting with nurses and patients sooner in life, smoke pot. "no" to wacky tabbacky. Once prohibition of alcohol ended, it caused trillions of $ in property damages, injuries, death, increased auto and medical insurance premiums, broken families, destroyed futures of children (including damage to the children), etc... Do innocent people need another trillion or so to be burdened by consequences from another "feel good" unhealthy quick fix? ban the plant, but approve the safe pill alternative. The safe pill would bring billions in profits, and none to the pathetic drug pushers and user.

Those who drank had 10 times the chance of crashing, teenagers had 4 times that chances of crashing, and folks over 50 had 3 times the chance. Those who had less sleep than 5 hours had twice the chance. Poor people have 4 times the chance of accidents.

So all in all, we would cut traffic fatalities by 90% of people switched from alcohol to pot.

These sorts of studies are subject to hundreds of confounding factors. Age, gender, education, stress, location, income level, etc... Even a good study that tries to remove these factors has a huge error margins.

I have no doubt if you get so stoned you can barely walk, you are a danger on the road.

Other tests of driving ability have shown that moderate smokers were slightly better drivers, the USA Army did one.

I call BS on this one, who paid for this experiment?
Having said that you shouldn't toke and drive but if an accident does happen it'll probably be a low speed crash anyway.

POT smoker crashes car on way to store to buy munchies ,,mymy. Anyway as someone who has driven both drunk and/or stoned ,I can say neither is smart but drunk driving is way more dangerous and i speak from experience and thank the big guy upstairs that no one has got hurt by my stupidity.To ofton the person drinking and driving gets more aggressive and stubbornabout thier behavior while the guy who is stoned takes more caution and pays attention to others.As a side note I havent touched booze in over 17yrs becuz what it can do to a persons life if abused

BS, nice picture by the way of the $100,000+ sports cars on a race track. Im sure LeMans drivers get ultra baked and drive 180 MPH during endurance races. How about we do a study on how many car accidents are caused by idiots who feel it necessary to talk on the phone while driving. Im sure more than 80 out of 537 (15%) drivers can admit to driving while talking on a phone or texting. And I bet they'd find that this causes more accidents than alcohol and pot combine.

Really ? I didn't know this, hang on, had to move that rock !

Interestingly enough, yesterday I read (with disgust) about a pending bill in the Florida senate - SB1810 - which would modify existing DUI laws so that police can blood test and urine test for any controlled or illegal susbtance as opposed to just alcohol.

Here is a good blog on the story: http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2012/02/floridas_comical_dwi_law_revis.php

We need to stop this continual erosion of our civil rights as citizens. The police are more and more able to search us without cause, invade our homes, and bascially do whatever they want to us in order to look for drugs.

This is supposedly a "free" country, but when we continue to make marijuana illegal in spite of the desire of many prductive members of our society using it, we are in fact just filling up the prisions with folks who in truth have not harmed anyone at all.

I read this story with great concern on the heels of the pending legislation, and I am wondering if we the sheeple will ever grow a spine and tell lawmakers "no more!"

That is total BS!!!!!