191–200 of 281 posts
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"If you're so drunk that you'd get pulled over as a pedestrian, then you most certainly should not be driving." Or you could just be walking while black (or hispanic, etc.).
Are you really blaming racism for DUIs?
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Police have been doing field sobriety tests that don't rely on chemical detection for a very, very long time. Examples: walk a straight line, follow the light with your eyes, close your eyes and tell me when 30 seconds have passed, stand on one leg, and so on.
Yes and they are incredibly inaccurate and rely entirely on subjective judgement from the cop's perspective. Full disclosure: I have been pulled over and arrested for "driving while ability impaired" (essentially the non-alcohol DUI) When I was going to school in upstate NY, I was pulled over as I drove my friend home. The cop thought we smelled like weed (fair enough, my friend had some on him, I was sober and not h…
Stop smoking weed? That doesn't sound at all worth the trouble.
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The very second sentence of the article reads: "And after adjusting for age, gender, race and alcohol use, drivers who tested positive for marijuana were no more likely to crash than who had not used any drugs or alcohol prior to driving." Edit: Just in case in the future anyone comes across my comment out of context of this thread, I'd like to add that without seeing further research I'm not personally convinced by…
Since testing positive just means that you might have used anytime in the past month or so, that's not meaningful. The study linked in the article confirms that yes, according to the evidence seen, marijuana significantly impairs driving ability, especially among casual users (to the surprise of no one whose actually used it I'm sure).
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"Pro tip: there is also a difference between having a beer with dinner and chugging vodka shots all night long. :D" True, which points to the fact that it would be useful to have a well-understood BAC-like scale for marijuana usage, especially as the drug becomes more and more legal to use. Clearly there's a difference between having one beer and driving an hour later compared to getting behind the wheel while nearly…
tolerance comes into account, which is why comparing driving on marijuana and driving on alcohol is akin to comparing apples and oranges. they're entirely, exponentially, infinitely different.
If I drank a six pack of beer right now I'd probably pass out, while some of the people I work with would still be able to drive quite well.
Something roughly equivalent applies to marijuana.
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tolerance comes into account, which is why comparing driving on marijuana and driving on alcohol is akin to comparing apples and oranges. they're entirely, exponentially, infinitely different.
As a mathematician, I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with you on "exponentially" and "infinitely" there.
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tolerance comes into account, which is why comparing driving on marijuana and driving on alcohol is akin to comparing apples and oranges. they're entirely, exponentially, infinitely different.
I'm going to disagree here too. I've never been much of an alcohol drinker. I've probably had six standard drinks in the past year. If I drank a six pack of beer right now I'd probably pass out, while some of the people I work with would still be able to drive quite well. Something roughly equivalent applies to marijuana.
even if you didn't, your motor control wouldn't be nearly as impaired, nor would your mental faculty.
your judgement also wouldn't be as impaired as having a 6 pack of beer with no tolerance, making it even less likely you get behind the wheel while too intoxicated.
I'd call that a "false" equivalence, not a rough one.
Do not read this and think it's okay to drive high. It's not. Do not drive high. Call an uber or something. I worry that people read studies like this and suddenly justify going out and driving while impaired. Driving is an incredibly dangerous activity on its own. Doing it when you're stoned is a stupid and risky move, and comparing it to how much more dangerous drunk driving is doesn't make it less stupid. If you'v…
Which by the way, you ever want to see just how good you are in reality, go do one of the racing related or defensive driving course. Ouch.
As a full supporter of cannabis legalization, I'm also a big supporter of a technology that can instantly detect whether someone's reflexes are impaired by cannabis. Notice that I'm focusing on whether or not they are impaired, as opposed to the amount in their bloodstream. The point being that people that use cannabis regularly for medical reasons don't seem to be impaired by it at all, while newer or more occasiona…
> a technology that can instantly detect whether someone's reflexes are impaired I'm not sure if that would work in practice. As mentioned, alcohol makes someone more confident, or more likely to do stupid things. The test should incorporate that. From another point of view, the alcohol tricks you into thinking your reflexes are still normal, while they are not. And this is the dangerous part, not the fact that your…
Do not read this and think it's okay to drive high. It's not. Do not drive high. Call an uber or something. I worry that people read studies like this and suddenly justify going out and driving while impaired. Driving is an incredibly dangerous activity on its own. Doing it when you're stoned is a stupid and risky move, and comparing it to how much more dangerous drunk driving is doesn't make it less stupid. If you'v…