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Over 40% of deceased drivers in vehicle crashes test positive for THC: Study

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Re: Over 40% of deceased drivers in vehicle crashes test positive for THC: Study

#191
post #105

One useful point of comparison here would be the percent of the driving population overall who have some THC in their system in the same way as these researchers are measuring it. I wouldn’t guess that 40% of drivers would test positive for recent THC use, but I can’t understand the 40% number here without knowing the percent for the overall population.

The number of people who use any THC at all isn’t even close to 40% thought. The highest survey numbers I found had 20% of people reporting any use, even once, in the past year.

There’s no way to normalize a result of 40% of a population sample having significant THC concentrations. That’s way higher than any conceivable sample of the general population.

Re: Over 40% of deceased drivers in vehicle crashes test positive for THC: Study

#192
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And field sobriety tests are routinely challenged in court because they aren’t objective and at best, they’re taken into consideration with other things like BAC.

my ex-girlfriend challenged this in court last year and lost. She was pulled over coming home and forced to take a field sobriety test. She was angry and was refusing, trying to explain that she just got off work. They arrested her for DUI. Called me to get the vehicle with her crying in the squad car. I bailed her out of jail for $500 two days later. Her BAC was 0. Her attitude when asked to perform the field sobrie…

She needs to hire a lawyer, this happens far too often.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFuVdlKD00s

Re: Over 40% of deceased drivers in vehicle crashes test positive for THC: Study

#193
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So until we have a valid method of testing if someone is “too stoned to drive” we have to push back on any attempt to classify marijuana users as ineligible to drive. You’re not really going to win anybody over to the legalization side when you basically say that people can consume as much THC as they want and drive without any penalties because of testing limitations.

Given that driving isn’t a right, there’s more leeway to be more strict. I used to bike-ride a lot, but the number unaccountable drivers and the increase in dispensaries in the NYC tri-state gave me pause.

Fun fact, you can be arrested for DUI on a bicycle, and it counts the same as if you were driving a car.

Re: Over 40% of deceased drivers in vehicle crashes test positive for THC: Study

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It would give better context to a dead drivers testing positive for THC. No it wouldn't. People make those excuses because it's weed, but you would have never posted that on an article about alcohol.

Yes, it would be useful. When controlling for variables, you normally want to compare against a baseline. If 40% of the whole population has THC in them, we'd need a control population (maybe from earlier when thc was less prominent) to see if per capita deaths has meaningfully increased. I'd do the same study, tangentially, for tech workers to see if productivity has changed when controlling for other variables.

No it wouldn't.

That would be true if you looked at a variable which is not influenced by driving, like the percentage that wear red jumpers, but one would hope that not everyone is reckless enough to be highly intoxicated and drive.

This is again THC apologizism, nobody would even begin to suggest this if we were talking about alcohol.

Re: Over 40% of deceased drivers in vehicle crashes test positive for THC: Study

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they cutting them off, though? If the street you're turning onto has two lanes, it shouldn't be a problem for two cars to turn at once. The car on the inside is required to turn into the nearest lane (according to any state law I know), so why can't the car on its left turn into its own lane?

If the right lane goes straight, you can't turn right from any other lane.

Obviously. But the comment said TURN LANE.

Re: Over 40% of deceased drivers in vehicle crashes test positive for THC: Study

#196
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a very widespread problem, I think, and probably has a complex mix of causes, but my perception as a NYC runner, cyclist, and driver is that there’s a fairly small percentage of extremely antisocial drivers who we allow to behave badly with relative impunity, which itself moves the Overton window of driving behavior towards aggression/chaos, so to speak. Very frequently when there is a newsmaking incident in whi…

What the heck? How can you get that many tickets and still have a license? (Or manageable insurance costs for that matter lol)

Unless you live in NYC or a handful of other places, an adult in the US who can't drive (or afford to pay someone to drive for them) is in the equivalent of economic-social prison. Almost all personal transportation infrastructure is designed around car travel, anything else is at best an afterthought and at worst impossible.

Don't get it twisted, I agree with you. The US is far too tolerant of dangerous driving. We are too dependent on cars for travel, and this is a consequence of it.

Re: Over 40% of deceased drivers in vehicle crashes test positive for THC: Study

#197

Based on the headline, I was guessing it was any amount of positivity, and may be close to the population level, but it's actually impairment levels of THC: > In a review of 246 deceased drivers, 41.9% tested positive for active THC in their blood, with an average level of 30.7 ng/mL — far exceeding most state impairment limits. Since COVID in CA, it feels like driving has become far more dangerous with much more law…

It's the same everywhere. It seems like police have just stopped enforcing traffic laws. Multiple times per week someone runs the red light in front of my local police station, in full view of an officer in their car, and nothing ever happens. Same with the multiple near-misses I see every week. They don't care, and since there are no consequences, there are no longer any traffic laws. Couple that with the mass psychosis afflicting the US, nobody seems to care about anything and just drive as fast and hard as they want to, and fuck absolutely everyone else.

Re: Over 40% of deceased drivers in vehicle crashes test positive for THC: Study

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they cutting them off, though? If the street you're turning onto has two lanes, it shouldn't be a problem for two cars to turn at once. The car on the inside is required to turn into the nearest lane (according to any state law I know), so why can't the car on its left turn into its own lane?

> Are they cutting them off, though? Its possible for multiple lanes to turn without anyone cutting anyone off, but its also possible for people to turn right from the middle lane of the source street into the rightmost lane of the target street, cutting off people in the rightmost lane of the source street attempting to turn, or to make a right turn from a middle lane that is not allowed to turn, cutting of a legal…

"cutting of a legal right-into-any-lane from the rightmost lane"

"its also possible for people to turn right from the middle lane of the source street into the rightmost lane of the target"

So you've created hypothetical situations that are no more useful than mine. I specifically mentioned having to turn into the nearest lane. If that's not true somewhere, then neither would adjacent turners be allowed. I simply asked if they were really cutting the other people off.

Re: Over 40% of deceased drivers in vehicle crashes test positive for THC: Study

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I feel like the United States could dramatically improve its road safety if it kept maybe 1-3% of its drivers off the road permanently.

the problem is that our urban planning is so F@#$ed that taking away someone's ability to drive is tantamount to sentencing someone to poverty. In most of the country, you are completely dependent on a car to hold down a job, get groceries and pretty much anything else. In most other countries, not having a car is a mild to moderate inconvenience you can work around.

Why do we care about this type of sentencing to poverty and not every other way we condemn our citizens to poverty, homelessness, starvation, and death?

Maybe that shouldn't be the only alternative in our society

Re: Over 40% of deceased drivers in vehicle crashes test positive for THC: Study

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got any real sources? I've been a daily user for over 10 years and also have a spotless driving record.

It is very noticeable to basically everyone when you consume cannabis regularly.

not exactly. Depends how you consume it. Smoking, yes probably. The other forms of cannabis are less obvious. They are clearer highs without smell or smoke and much less burnout.
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