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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

#231

Post by heavyset_go »

bko wrote: post #186
TimorousBestie wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's probably some of this, but I think it's driven by district attorney not prosecuting people. We see people that have 20+ prior arrests. How many times can a cop arrest the same person and do the paperwork if he's not going to be prosecuted? There’s plenty of desire to increase prosecution rates in American jurisdictions but little desire to raise taxes high enough to pay for lawyers, judges, courthouses, and…

> victims of petty crime are usually poor or middle-class and therefore lack the political power to meaningfully change policy This is just not true. Most of this is organized exploiting a lenient justice system. From my original NYT article: > Last year, 41 people were indicted in New York City in connection with a theft ring that state prosecutors said shoplifted millions of dollars worth of beauty products and lux…

The idea that organized retail theft is significant or "most" is a myth[1]

[1] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/retail-theft-in-us-cities...

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

#233

Post by Ancapistani »

epistasis wrote: post #7

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…

There’s no reliable way to determine impairment from a blood test. At most, this says that ~42% of people used it recently and/or frequently enough for metabolites to be present.

https://forensicresources.org/2021/marijuana-impairment-faq/

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

#234

Post by reop2whiskey »

cubefox wrote: post #30

Could this mean that THC is more dangerous for vehicle safety than alcohol?

It is entirely possible THC is more dangerous for vehicle safety than alcohol and that wouldn’t surprise me. But based on this study alone? No.

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

#235

Post by slumberlust »

eastbound wrote: post #178
VerifiedReports wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most galling and pervasive offense, though, is TEXTING. The rampant texting while driving is killing pedestrians (and other drivers), leading to oft-cited statistics about the failure of "Vision Zero" and the increase in pedestrian deaths. Not to mention the millions of hours stolen from us all by people BLOCKING TRAFFIC while texting. We should not tolerate the ignorant and ineffectual response from lawmakers on…

Yeah. Well on one side, sharing location on Whatsapp has reduced by 90% the need to text while driving. But we still need to address the rest. Radio is chokefull of ads and the usual radio content is often insufficient to overcome my loneliness, so I’m not gonna say it’s ok, but I listen to Youtube videos while driving. You can sanction me. But let’s make the radio less boring for the sake of safety.

'Entertain me better or I'll drive distracted' is a distorted view on your responsibility as the controller of a two ton missile.

I don't like ads either, but that doesn't excuse my responsibility to drive safely for the betterment of myself and my community.

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

#236

Post by baobun »

VerifiedReports wrote: post #195
lamontcg wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Obviously. But the comment said TURN LANE.

That would be the lane for turning, yes?

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

#238

Post by wiml »

mrj wrote: post #215
wiml wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some occupations where we aspire to that low level of risk. But it would mean that driving can't be an everyday activity for ordinary people. No driving if you haven't been getting proper sleep; no driving if jet lagged. No driving if your attention is impaired by grief, stress, or impatience. Or if your annual physical reveals a risk. Or if you've ever had psychological complaints. We should absolutely mak…

That's probably not the thing to tell a parent whose kid just made a dent and a black smudge on a MachE. I don't want to over index on the "think of the kids" argument, but we don't take driving seriously enough. Wikipedia says: Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of preventable death for people aged 5–22, and the second most common cause for ages 23–67. The linked article is astounding. The attitude in this…

Okay, that was insensitive of me.

But yes, what you say is the logical consequence (except I'm not kidding about grief and impatience).

My point really is that if we want our kids not to get horribly injured or killed, we can't just focus on "other people" making bad decisions like driving drunk. We have to acknowledge that we've collectively built a system that requires people to put each other in danger with cars, and we have to think about how to change that. Cars bring a lot of benefits like autonomy and decentralization, how do we keep that but kill fewer people?

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

#239

Post by epistasis »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #203
dns_snek wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not a good reason. Other forms of criminality and reckless behavior don't get this kind of extreme leniency. People shouldn't have their license taken away over 1 speeding ticket but there need to be escalating punishments that include license suspension, community service, jail time. If someone works their way through all of these and still ends up speeding then they can't be trusted to drive a vehicle on pub…

Drivers licenses in most if not all of the U.S. are a joke, and people will still drive with suspended licenses, especially if they have to for work. Driving on a suspended license should allow the state to impound your car, though, then it would be respected.

Jail time should also be considered too, for repeat offenders.

Cars are a weird sort of thing, where they both are the justification for a surveillance state and lots of monitoring, but we also have extremely lenient penalties. It's difficult for me to understand how the US arrived at our current set of laws.

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

#240

Post by ben_w »

loeg wrote: post #104
dragonwriter wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We can only cure this if we get serious about penalties Saying that in the country with world-leading mass incarceration mostly due to its decades long “war on drugs” which has very much not cured drug problems is a perfect example of putting ideological preconceptions ahead of reality.

We have world-leading criminality rates. Given that, the only alternatives are world-leading incarceration, or just letting criminals roam around making law-abiders' lives worse.

There's a lot of different ways to measure crime, making it hard to compare between nations.

The people who try anyway, mostly put the USA as fairly middling, nothing special either way.

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