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Weed impairment... is it a legitimate concern?

G

goodness-707

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Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Location
Dublin
Moto(s)
not nearly enough
Name
Richard
I have no practical knowledge nor agenda here, just genuinely curious...

Since California legalized weed, there is a push to develop a blood-alcohol equivalent for weed so that we have a easily understood definition of impaired. I wonder though... are we trying to define "weed-impaired" because of the legal ambiguity, or because it's a genuine public safety problem? Do you all cite/arrest people for driving stoned? Is it as common as DUI-alcohol? Is it as dangerous?

Question is inspired by articles like this one. Thanks.
 
I don't think weed impairment is a legitimate concern in the case of most pot smokers. But it is a concern in the case of some. And since we legislate to the lowest common denominator, laws are necessary. :2cents
 
It will be interesting to see what develops. I doubt it’ll be something as simple as BAC, determined by breath or blood readings. Trace elements can be detected weeks after ingesting it, so they’ll need a test that looks for current use.

Pot doesn’t seem to impact motor movement, balance etc as alcohol does so the usual roadside physical tests may not reflect a person’s level of cannabis in their system.

Best to do one’s drinking or smoking after your driving/riding is done.
 
I wonder how a ganja impaired driver would fare in a standard field sobriety (tough finger to nose, walk the line) test.
 
I can tell you the DOT is concerned and are working on it.

From personal experience it is way less invasive than alcohol but from a legal standpoint impacted is impaired.
However I have seen some dumb moves by stoned drivers and for pot rookies the high grade shit these days could be an issue.

Right now someone administering an impairment test is all that can be done legally.
 
I've made MJ DUI arrests. I think they are becoming more frequent in the last few years in my department. I've definitely seen impairment in driving indicators of impairment as well as impairment in field sobriety tests from some with marijuana.

It's not as common as alcohol DUI. It's not as clear cut and there is no minimum standard of presumed impairment, like there is with alcohol. But that's the same with every other drug. I've also made DUI arrests for meth, heroin, and pills. Certain pills can impair a lot. Heroin can impair a lot. Marijuana can impair more than meth, IMO and from what I've observed.
 
Years ago Car and Driver magazine did some tests both of alcohol impairment and marijuana impairment. For the alcohol, it was obvious that those who were impaired couldn't control the vehicle well enough and they came to the conclusion that 0.08 was probably still too lenient.

With marijuana they found that the test subjects could still control the cars pretty well, but they didn't care if they ran over people or whatever. In other words judgement was affected more than control skills.
 
You can always tell the weed impaired riders. They are the ones laying on the side of the road eating a bag of Doritos.

Mad
 
They have test strips for yo mouf, that detect the presence of THC. Since THC stays in the saliva for about 3 to 4 hours (almost the exact same time span as being 'high'), it's a solid indicator similar to a BAC test.
that being said, Motorcyclist just did a weed riding test...

Getting stoned and riding for science

Back to getting stoned and going riding: Lacking the resources to do a complex examination of the subject, we put together a small experiment. We went to the 0.625-mile kart track at Willow Springs Raceway, outside Los Angeles, with a well-used 3 hp, 50cc Honda CRF 50 and one douchey-looking vape pen. Contributing editor Zach Bowman and I smoked our weight in two different types of marijuana concentrates, for almost five hours. Every 30 minutes, we each did two laps around the track from a dead stop.
...
It was hilarious. Then it was even better, and I was laughing at my own knees. I felt like a god. At the top of third gear, the wind found its way into my shirt and sang fun little songs at my nipples, but it didn’t take long for the riding to feel like work. After our second dose, Bowman’s time slid to 2:54.85, and mine stumbled to 2:48.59. Bowman also managed to completely fail the left/right maneuver, locking up the rear tire and shooting through on the wrong side of our flagger with a wide-eyed wail. “I’m target fixating,” he said. “It’s like my eyes don’t want to let go of whatever they’re stuck on. Cones, flags, apexes. Whatever.”
 
budman said:
and for pot rookies the high grade shit these days could be an issue.
Click to expand...

Can confirm.

Edit; will say though, didn't feel like I'd be able to ride a motorcycle and really had no desire to. Unlike after a few mixed drinks, I felt very impaired.
 
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It's a legitimate concern for road safety.
  • In January, a motorcyclist was killed in San Jose by a driver who was arrested for DUI because "the car smelled heavily of marijuana".

  • Last year in Santa Barbara, a driver pulled out from the curb into a motorcyclist's path, killing him, and was found to be under the influence of marijuana and charged with DUI manslaughter.

  • In Pomona last year, a motorcop responding to a fatal crash was hit and injured by a driver found to be under the influence of marijuana.

  • In December 2016, a driver under the influence of marijuana traveling southbound on northbound I-5 near the Mexican border killed an oncoming motorcyclist.

  • In one of the more outrageous incidents in my archive, in 2007 a heavily baked 20-year-old driver lost control of his pickup on 101 in Ventura County. He crippled a CHP motor officer and hit the SUV the officer had pulled over, setting it on fire and killing its driver. The pickup driver, who may still be serving his 15-year sentence, was transporting a pound-and-a-half of "medical" marijuana. Apparently, neither his "doctor" nor state-licensed drug dealer was prosecuted.
A law specifying a quantitative standard is necessary so impaired drivers don't get away with murder. In 2006, a Napa County driver high on marijuana and prescription drugs killed a motorcyclist on Silverado Trail. The driver got a sweet misdemeanor deal, which doesn't happen with alcohol and an objective standard of impairment.

Such a law would also benefit drivers wrongly accused of impairment by making the state definitively prove the charge.
 
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If there was an easy way to stuff girl scout cookies into your mouth while riding, then that's when it's an epidemic
 
if it was safe then it never would have been labled a drug.
but lets not forget there are those out there that are sentave to this s--tuff. aka: coughing, tight lungs, cant breath, things like that.
 
packnrat said:
if it was safe then it never would have been labled a drug.
but lets not forget there are those out there that are sentave to this s--tuff. aka: coughing, tight lungs, cant breath, things like that.
Click to expand...

Not sure if it gets 'labeled' a drug; a drug is any substance that alters the human body.
Caffeine is a drug and it is incredibly safe in comparison to other drugs.

And it was criminalized due to political pressure, not due to its inherent danger. First the influx of Mexicans in the 30's who frequently used it, then the hippie culture in the 60's.

Agree that inhalation of burning plant material is not great for lungs.
 
mean dad said:
Not sure if it gets 'labeled' a drug; a drug is any substance that alters the human body.
Caffeine is a drug and it is incredibly safe in comparison to other drugs.

And it was criminalized due to political pressure, not due to its inherent danger. First the influx of Mexicans in the 30's who frequently used it, then the hippie culture in the 60's.

Agree that inhalation of burning plant material is not great for lungs.
Click to expand...

Don't forget cotton farmers!
 
and paper mills! hemp was going to put logging for paper out of business
 
mototireguy said:
I wonder how a ganja impaired driver would fare in a standard field sobriety (tough finger to nose, walk the line) test.
Click to expand...

I would probably do all those things better then if I was sober
 
mototireguy said:
I wonder how a ganja impaired driver would fare in a standard field sobriety (tough finger to nose, walk the line) test.
Click to expand...

Im getting more weed impaired driving lately from traffic stops running radar. More people are tending to speed wheras you'd think they would be driving 5 mph. lol

Ive had a few lately running LIDAR and driver was doing 65-70 mph on city street 35 mph zone. Mind is altered and they swear they were doing the speed limit. Also, some of the FST's for weed fall under DAR or drug abuse recognition tests, so they are a little different then the three standard alcohol related tests.
Id also say Ive seen probably about 50% of my weed impaired DUI arrests were combo with consuming alcohol as well.
 
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