Maine, Michigan votes another 'green light' for marijuana legalization

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/09/us/marijuana-public-opinion/index.html?eref=edition

by cdvonstinkpot • 13 years ago

40 20 13 years ago

edition.cnn.com

ck2• 13 years ago

I don't give a darn what people do in their homes but I'll tell you, I am terrified of stoned driving becoming common.

oe• 13 years ago

Does it depend on pot being legalised or not though? I'd believe people who want to smoke pot do it already.

chilldream2• 13 years ago

If anything, I'd suspect the people who want to smoke but respect current pot laws would also respect DUI laws were pot legal.

syncopatience• 13 years ago

Fortunately some research indicates that stoned driving is less cause for concern than drunk driving.

One study[1] has found that "THC's effects after doses up to 300 mcg / kg never exceed alcohol's at BAC's of 0.08 g %" and that "alcohol impaired performance relative to placebo but subjects did not perceive it", whereas "THC did not impair driving performance yet the subjects thought it had."

Another study[2] finds that "marijuana smokers tend to compensate effectively for their impairment by utilizing a variety of behavioral strategies such as driving more slowly, passing less, and leaving more space between themselves and cars in front of them", although it notes that the combination of marijuana and alcohol can impair even at doses that would be harmless for either drug alone.

[1] http://casr.adelaide.edu.au/t95/paper/s1p2.html

[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2722956/

JPKab• 13 years ago

My completely anecdotal experience in college amongst my friends was that, amongst people who used marijuana, they would drink far less when it was around.

I'm curious to see what will happen in Colorado regarding accidents caused by drunk driving and alcohol related crime in general. Will it go down measurably due to people substituting marijuana for booze?

tokenizer2• 13 years ago

Do you not think it's common now? Maybe the reason why we don't have such a stigma towards it (in terms of worry being talked about surrounding legalization) is because the reports of stoned persons killing people is less common?

Do you feel like you could back up this fear with data, proving the fear reality, or do you feel like it might be a fear of the unknown?

jonknee• 13 years ago

You should probably stay off the roads then. The good news is the data suggests the roads will become safer as more states legalize (stoned drivers are vastly more cautious than drunk drivers).

InclinedPlane• 13 years ago

In Washington state, where we recently decriminalized marijuana use, the DUI standards for pot are actually much stronger than for alcohol. This is despite the fact that pot use doesn't impair driving ability in the same way as alcohol.

Moreover, people are already smoking pot, a lot, millions of people. Stoned driving is probably already about as common as it ever will be.

hellbanTHIS• 13 years ago

Aha, I was wondering how the cops and courts were going to keep up all that revenue they used to get from pot busts. Piss test roadblocks for everybody!

jophde• 13 years ago

Is there even a good way to test if someone is high in the field like a breathalyzer? I have always been told if you don't admit they can't prove it.

yodsanklai• 13 years ago

Regardless how dangerous stoned driving is, it's not clear whether pot legalisation will increase usage. Moreover, I believe that legalising will allow for more prevention and control.

pilooch• 13 years ago

Hopefully self driving car are on the way ;)

tokenizer2• 13 years ago

I find this to be an interesting point. I'd reckon the laws wouldn't change.

Pilots, who fly with autopilot still have to be attentive to potential failures within the system. I find it really fascinating that we'd hold cars to lesser scrutiny, because if these cars show up in the marketplace, and thousands or accidents are blamed on them, they could be set back by years, or worse, banned.

psherman• 13 years ago

Cars have the obvious advantage of being on the ground, so if something goes wrong there would presumably be fail safes to pull the car over to the side of the road instead of plummeting to the ground.

lolcraft• 13 years ago

Meh. This is legalization of use. I mean, yeah, it's a nice step, specially for the US -- a country which still has in its legislation, though void by the constitutional court, the death penalty for possession of fairly big amounts. Shows that the mentality has changed, and that's great.

The world should still move towards full legalization: use and trade.

twiceaday• 13 years ago

You can tell they take the issue seriously by their rhetoric.

sharkweek• 13 years ago

This will quickly become a nationwide trend -- Washington and Colorado are going to have this massive revenue stream, and other states are going to want the same thing.

Or the federal government will squash it all.

I give it 10 years; one or the other, Utah being an exception

oldgregg• 13 years ago

The feds won't do shit. We're at depression level unemployment in many areas. Keeping bored people happy with a steady diet of weed, pornography, and hot pockets is a small price to pay when the alternative is civil unrest.

dscrd• 13 years ago

When will we start getting actual data on the effects of legalization? As someone who lives in a rather conservative country when it comes to drug laws, I'd be very interested.

Maine, Michigan votes another 'green light' for marijuana legalization

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