Marijuana Use Doubles Risk of Collisions

[BrnCow]

If you are gonna smoke and then drive...wait 20 minutes before you leave. That initial blast off can screw your head up for a little while. But after the initial rush has worn off, the only thing that might happen is that you get lost and not know where you are. Be sure and take a map with you...lol Swag is famous for losing your sense of direction while using it...

 

[Iron_Lion]

Propaganda....

I smoke weed many times a day, everyday and I never feel impaired like I do if I was to drink alcohol.

I'll even go as far to say weed enhances me and makes me better at almost everything, including driving.

DONT smoke weed and drive, but they have no problems if you pop a few oxi's and get behind the wheel. F8ckin asinine.

 

[festivus]

I agree with Skip, alcohol and other drugs taint the result. After not drinking for 5 months, I had 2 drinks the other night. Started driving, and within seconds I found myself tailgating the car ahead of me.

When I'm stoned and driving, I pay much more attention, just have a bit of a challenge staying in the middle of my lane. I tend to wander either left or right.

 

[trichrider]

couple this with the law they are trying to pass in Cali...election year propaganda!

doubles the risk of colliding with LEO.

 

[The Boys]

il probably take the risk.......for years to come .....and have manny times in the past

 

[vapedg13]

oh yea..but this study says

There's yet another study now that concludes marijuana users are better drivers, especially when compared with those who use alcohol behind the wheel. Twenty years of study has concluded that marijuana smokers may actually be getting a bad rap and that they may actually have fewer accidents than other drivers.


The website 4AutoinsuranceQuote.org put a press release on the study, which "looks at statistics regarding accidents, traffic violations, and insurance prices," and "seeks to dispel the though that 'driving while stoned' is dangerous."


Research studies in the Netherlands at the Dutch Institute for Road Safety Research showed that drivers with blood alcohol rates of .5 percent up to .8 percent had accidents five times more than other drivers, and with higher amounts of alcohol, accidents happening up to 15 times more often. But, the marijuana smokers actually showed these drivers posed no risk at all!



4autoinsurancequote.org
Reasons cited for stoned drivings not being much of a threat to public highway safety include their tendency to drive slower, and their propensity to stay home rather than go out partying.


In addition, one study by the U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration shows that drivers with THC in their systems have accident responsibility rates lower than those of drug-free drivers.


"What law enforcement agencies and insurers do not understand is that driving while high is actually a safe activity," CEO James Shaffer said. "I guess the key to safer driving is to use marijuana, but to do it under wraps."


One recent study indicated that traffic related fatalities fell by up to nine percent in states that have legalized medical marijuana. Entitled "Medical Marijuana Laws, Traffic Fatalities, and Alcohol Consumption," the study, conducted in November 2011, found increased cannabis use by adults decreased alcohol related traffic deaths in those states.


The study provides evidence that marijuana is a safer substitute for alcohol when it comes to health and also makes for safer drivers.


"Marijuana users often say that when they are high, they feel like they are driving 60 miles per hour but actually are only going 30 miles per hour," Shaffer said. "When somebody is drunk driving, on the other hand, they often feel like they are driving 30 miles per hour but they are actually driving 80 miles per hour. This is what makes alcohol dangerous behind the wheel, and marijuana safe."


As an auto insurance provider, 4autoinsurancequote.org said that marijuana use can also have an indirect effect on insurance rates. Because of the correlation between marijuana use and lower rates of accident responsibility, they said marijuana users, as a group, can expect in the future to see lower insurance rates than non-marijuana users.


"The hypocrisy of it all is that if you get caught driving under the influence of marijuana, you will be fined and perhaps thrown into jail," Shaffer said. "What's worse is that your insurance rates will definitely increase due to the traffic violation."


According to 4autoinsurance.org, the Top 10 reasons marijuana users are safer drivers are as follows:


1. Drivers who had been using marijuana were found to drive slower, according to a 1983 NHTSA study.


2. Marijuana users were able to drive straight and didn't have trouble staying in their own lanes, according to a 1993 NHTSA study done in the Netherlands. The same study concluded that marijuana had very little effect on overall driving ability.


3. Drivers who had smoked marijuana were less likely to try to pass other cars and were more likely to drive at a steady speed, according to a University of Adelaide study done in Australia. The study showed no danger from marijuana and driving unless the drivers had also been using alcohol.


4. Drivers high on marijuana are less likely to drive recklessly, according to a study done in the United Kingdom in 2000 by the UK Transport Research Lab. The study was actually undertaken to prove that pot impairs driving, but instead it showed the opposite -- that stoned drivers were actually safer than many other drivers on the road.


5. States that allow medical marijuana see a reduction in highway fatalities; for instance, Colorado and Montana have had a nine percent drop in traffic deaths and a five percent drop in beer sales.


6. Low doses of marijuana were found to have little affect on the ability to drive a car in a Canadian study in 2002. These drivers were found to be in much fewer car crashes than alcohol users.


7. Most marijuana smokers have fewer crashes because they tend to stay home instead of driving.


8. Marijuana smokers are thought to be more sober drivers; traffic information from 13 of the states where medical cannabis is legal showed that these drivers are actually safer and more careful than many other drivers on the road. These studies were conducted by the University of Colorado and Montana State University, exploring the relationship between legal medical marijuana and deaths in traffic accidents.


9. Multiple studies show that marijuana smokers are less likely to be risk takers than those who use alcohol; the studies showed that marijuana use calmed them down and made them pay more attention.


10. Cannabis smoking drivers were shown to follow other vehicles at safer distances, which made they less likely to cause or have crashes.


"Every test seemed to come up with these same results in all of the countries they were done in," 4autoinsurance.org concludes. "Even so, insurance companies will still penalize any driver in an accident that has been shown to have been smoking pot, so this doesn't give drivers free reign to smoke pot and drive."

 

[Skinny Leaf]

Maybe alot of the participants just couldn't drive for shit. Even sober their driving skills suck. I probably drive close to 200 miles every day on the freeways. People can not drive for shit. It only gets worse as the years roll by. Our state doesn't even require people to take driving school before getting a license. Not to mention half the folks on the road here can't read a lick of english.

Also how many of them were on the damn phone. Put the fucking phone down and drive. The cell phones are bigger problems than the weed.

 

[BjornFrieze]

I call BS on the "doubles the risk" study. Cannabis metabolites stay in the system for weeks after smoked - detecting those in accident victims gives no indication when they were consumed.

AND most stoners I've driven with, myself included, are far more careful and aware of their actions than regular drivers, and certainly far more so than drinkers. We know we're high, and compensate.

 

[wantaknow]

i just seen on tv not more than 3 days ago where the insurance co did a study onthis and found smokers less likly to be involved in an accident ,

 

[Desert Hydro]

ice cream use doubles the risk of fatness

 

[Peacemonger]

The "Norco" I have to take sometimes when My "green medicine" is not enough makes it ten fold more likely of a collision. (If i where stupid enough to get behind the wheel.)...Just like the "NRA" The "Aslinger type groups" will never stop with there distortions. Lies, Misinformation campaigns...BTW, I stopped watching (FOXNN) a couple of years ago as I was certain there agenda was going toward a "Fox" type of programing. They are not as bad as Fox with outrite bald face lying but they deff started the "selective reporting ,non disclousre" type of reporting Fox is so famous for. MSNBC is one of the last remaining places for the "whole truth" about anything. And I don't know how long they will be able to continue. For some strange reason now leaders and politicians are able to come out on a sunny day and proclaim it's actually night and dark out and most of us "Retarded Americans " believe them for some reason I have yet to understand.All the very best my friends...!

 

[Harry Gypsna]

News just in,
reading these endless propaganda studies by "The man" and his minions dramatically increases the desire to bang your own head against a damned wall

 

[lost in a sea]

 

[OreoGrows]

I GUARANTEE that the results in this study involve days or even WEEKS old cannabis metabolites in the systems of those involved in the accident. There's NO way to tell for sure if these people were high at the time of the accident.

I call bullshit!

definatly true. i smoke when i drive, specifically because it makes me drive slower and i dont get mad at morons in massachusetts who cant drive. id ru. people off the road if it werent for mary

 

[greenmatter]

going to Hooters for lunch doubles your risk of liking big tits for an hour or two.

those places should be illegal

 

[Dorky]

Having a crying kid in your car really quadruples your cause of collision. My girls nagging while I am driving octuples my chance of wanting to crash on purpose.