NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Young men who are impulsive thrill-seekers are more likely to admit to driving while high on marijuana, Canadian researchers report.
Men who drove under the influence of cannabis were also more likely to report certain risky driving behaviors, and tend to get in more accidents, Drs. Isabelle Richer and Jacques Bergeron of the University of Montreal say.
After alcohol, cannabis is the mind-altering substance most often found in the urine or blood of drivers after a crash, the researchers note in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention. Studies have shown that people’s driving skills are impaired within the first hour after smoking pot, they add. And it’s also possible, according to Richer and Bergeron, that people who get behind the wheel after smoking marijuana are also by nature more likely to be dangerous drivers.
Study participants with high scores on personality tests measuring sensation seeking and impulsivity were more likely to say they had driven under the influence of cannabis in the past year. The pot-smoking drivers were also more likely to report having engaged in risky driving, meaning driving in a careless way that could hurt others but isn’t intended to do so; and negative emotional driving, for example, getting angry with other motorists. These men were also more likely to exhibit these behaviors in the simulation tests. There was a slight increased likelihood that the pot smokers would get in crashes, and they were also more likely to admit to drinking and driving.
via Pot-smokers may take more risks on the road – News Wires – CNBC.com.
OK, so what you’re telling me is that young men who are “impulsive sensation seekers” are likely to:
- Smoke pot,
- Drive risky,
- Get road rage.
Color me surprised. Impulsive young men do stupid things. At sixteen, I once stole my dad’s pickup and gas credit card to hook up with a girl who lived in Tri-Cities, Washington whom I’d met just that week in Boise, Idaho, all on impulse, not thinking that the credit card receipts would totally ruin my alibi lie. I also drove fairly recklessly, almost wrecking the truck as I went off the road and spun out in the median of the freeway, while I was completely sober (I hadn’t touched alcohol or cannabis at that point.) Go figure. Teenage hormones made me a worse driving risk than cannabis ever has.
The fly in the ointment in this news report for me is “cannabis is the mind-altering substance most often found in the urine or blood of drivers after a crash”. No kidding – considering that cannabis is the third most used substance after alcohol and tobacco, it wouldn’t be surprising at all to find cannabis in people’s blood or urine. With the urine test, the cannabis can turn up even weeks after smoking; with the blood, days.
What none of this proves is that they are “driving while high on marijuana”. In most of America, we have a .08 blood alcohol standard – above that, you are, per se, impaired. What that implies, then, is that below .08, it is possible you are not too impaired to drive.
Similarly, we have a whole host of pharmaceuticals whose ads say, “Until you know how you may react to Fuqitol, don’t drive or operate heavy machinery,” which suggests to me that once you do know how you may react, it is possible you are not too impaired to drive.
Yet with cannabis, these studies will point to drivers who’ve been in a crash who’ve had inactive, non-impairing marijuana metabolites in their urine and proclaim, aha!, “Young men who are impulsive thrill-seekers are more likely to admit to driving while high on marijuana!”
At NORML, we are clear – you should never smoke and drive. (Mostly for self-preservation – the vast majority of possession pot busts are made during traffic encounters with police.) Smoking and driving is not “responsible use”. However, these reports that imply a huge social risk from cannabis-impaired drivers are way overblown. I’ve said it before – when someone can show me the bar that has only taxicabs in its parking lot, you can talk to me about the social danger of stoned drivers.
I posted an article relating to this study back on March 11th, (http://sonorml.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=167) and concluded the post with a prediction that this would soon turn up as another “proof of the evils of cannabis” piece of propaganda. Three weeks later, it is still falling like volcanic ash all over the web. As far as evidence of anything, this study is still as bogus as oregano in a baggie.
The truth is at the bottom of the article.
“These men were also more likely to exhibit these behaviors [risky driving and negative emotional driving] in the simulation tests.”
In the simulation tests. When presumably they were as sober as a judge. (cough) So this is how they act ALL the time? Where is the link to cannabis? Right there beside this one.
“they were also more likely to admit to drinking and driving.”
They drink and drive. And where is the data correlating how much of that “slight increased likelihood that the pot smokers would get in crashes” was due to the cannabis ALONE?
All hail junk science.
Could it not also be said that people who drive recklessly are more likely to be reckless about storinge their herb in the car. ie., roaches in the ashtray?
How young are we talking. like 16 or 23 or under 30. by the time i was 19 i had enough points to be 1 under at all times not to have my dl pulled. and i was constantly speeding. fortunitly i didnt have an accident. but now that i smoke pot if i happen to get behind the wheel i take some time before i get into the car to sober up. bout 30 – 45 min and dont smoke and i never drink when i smoke. and drink some water. and i havent had a ticket or wreck in almost 5 years