Let me begin by quoting NORML’s Principles of Responsible Use:

II. No Driving

The responsible cannabis consumer does not operate a motor vehicle or other dangerous machinery while impaired by cannabis, nor (like other responsible citizens) while impaired by any other substance or condition, including some medicines and fatigue.

Although cannabis is said by most experts to be safer than alcohol and many prescription drugs with motorists, responsible cannabis consumers never operate motor vehicles in an impaired condition. Public safety demands not only that impaired drivers be taken off the road, but that objective measures of impairment be developed and used, rather than chemical testing.

All right, now on to the alarmist headline:

Sources: Stallworth Had Pot In System

NFL Player Struck, Killed Pedestrian

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Sources said NFL player Donte Stallworth was found to have marijuana in his system as well as alcohol on the morning he struck and killed a pedestrian with his car.

Local 10 sources close to the case said a toxicology report showed Stallworth was not only legally drunk before hitting and killing 59-year-old Mario Reyes, but he also had marijuana in his system.

Sources said the Reyes family knew about the toxicology report and the marijuana before signing off on Stallworth’s plea deal. Under the deal, Stallworth pleaded guilty to DUI manslaughter charges and was sentenced to 30 days in prison. He also paid an undisclosed settlement to the family of the victim.

Local 10 also has learned that there is surveillance video of the March 14 incident on the MacArthur Causeway that showed Reyes illegally crossing the expressway and darting out in front of Stallworth’s car. A court hearing is set for Thursday morning to determine if that videotape can be unsealed and released to the media.

Police said Stallworth’s blood-alcohol level was 0.126 percent after the crash. Florida’s legal limit is 0.08 percent.

According to a statement by his attorney, marijuana was detected in Stallworth’s blood following the crash.  NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano gave an excellent presentation in Aspen on the science of blood testing for marijuana; I asked him for a statement on this Stallworth incident (emphasis mine):

THC/blood levels are generally an indicator of recent use in the past few hours, which could infer impairment but go no further than “infer.” However, there’s a small body of research indicating that residual levels of THC may be detected in the blood at low levels (under 2ng/ml, and typically under 1ng/ml) for 48+ hours in some extreme cases. So, some of this would hinge on what the THC/blood levels are. If they are well above 2ng/ml then the chances are this person recently used cannabis, and one could speculate that they may have also been impaired (to some unknown degree) at that time, but at best it’s speculation — hardly anything definitive.

So what we have here is the traditional media hyping the marijuana angle on this tragic death resulting from someone we know for a scientific and legal fact was too impaired by alcohol to be driving (unless Stallworth is such an alcoholic that 0.126 BAC doesn’t impair him; regardless, he’s legally drunk).

Also, we should note that the victim in this case was shown on traffic surveillance to be illegally crossing the expressway and had “darted out” in front of Stallworth’s car when he was hit.  It’s not hard to imagine that even a teetotaler driving down that expressway would’ve hit the victim.  Yet another reason you shouldn’t smoke and drive: you may be the greatest driver in the world stoned, but that’s not going to stop some drunk from bumping into you, some idiot from slamming on his brakes in front of you, your taillight deciding to burn out at night, or some fool running in front of your car on the MacArthur Causeway at dark-thirty in the morning.

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