Cannabis and driving

Check this out - I’ve never seen this graph before - it’s based on the 2015 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/09/stoned-drivers-are-a-lot-safer-than-drunk-ones-new-federal-data-show/?utm_term=.37d75f2e0455

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Interesting…

THC affected drivers are slower that is a fact… They have slower reaction time. But according to studies they can adapt their driving style to their current intoxication. For example they slow down when approaching difficult section. So they can in fact compensate their momentary handicap by experience.

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I believe personally that the chart is faulty because we have for years recorded and documented alcohol related, however I have never ever been drug tested on the side of the road, while on the other I have blown in the tube a total of eight times and been under the limit with no dui/dwi charges I have had a couple of “whiskey dents” I will vouch that alcohol makes for speeding and other aggressive behaviors . I would also agree that a weed buzz tends to make me slower and calmer, However I had a super head rush smoking a doob after an Aerosmith show and hit a mailbox. I got away but wrecked a fender. So I feel the chart is faulty because the data is unquantifiable.

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The chart is indeed a picture of empirical data from a massive study - the largest study of cannabis and DUI ever done in the US:

812117-Drug_and_Alcohol_Crash_Risk[1].pdf (460.7 KB)

http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/812117-Drug_and_Alcohol_Crash_Risk.pdf

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excerpt:

Data was collected from more than 3,000 crash-involved drivers and 6,000 control drivers (not involved in crashes). Breath alcohol measurements were obtained from a total of 10,221 drivers, oral fluid samples from 9,285 drivers, and blood samples from 1,764 drivers.

Research teams responded to crashes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week over a 20-month period. In order to maximize comparability, efforts were made to match control drivers to each crash-involved driver. One week after a driver involved in a crash provided data for the study, control drivers were selected at the same location, day of week, time of day, and direction of travel as the original crash.

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Can the data be skewed by number of alcohol tests vs thc tests done?

I know few friends that had an accident but they luckily haven’t been blood tested for THC… :imp: I mean alcohol test when crash-involved is something pretty automatic, but I don’t think that THC and other drugs are tested if there is no suspicion from the police.

Thanks for the PDF … I have to read it yet…

It sounds like you need to not only need to read it but also brush up on the scientfiic method and the use of control groups. This report is the most accurate, most scientifically valid study ever performed on “drugs” and DUI.

Yes, THC and the other drugs were tested, every single time, or the results would not have been included in the comparison. The only possible critique one could make of the study is the fact that it occurs within one geographic area of the US, everything else has been controlled for.

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Hi @LemonadeJoe,

Personally I have 3 memberships to the Shell fuels million mile club from driving 44 ton articulated trucks HGVs around the continent.

In that time I had a few little accidents non fault with other vehicles cars cutting infront of me to get off highways etc.

I carried goods varying from foods and drinks in refridgerated trailers, to aircraft engines been transported for immediate fitting to planes on arrival all over europe. Loads of Mobile phones and microchips where the loads were valued in excess of 1 million Euros sometimes with armed gaurd escorts. Loads of alchol whisky etc

Many high value loads and in all that time I was powered by white widow, while the truck was powered by deisel lol.

I never had any claims against me for accidents or damaged goods in the many years I did that job. I knew a few drivers that were powered by bacardi and vodka etc some used cocaine, needles to say at the places I worked they decalred to you on application, " If you cannot drive for a day, night and a day without sleep do not apply!!"

The guys I knew that drove using alcohol or stimulants such as cocaine or amphetemines genrally had quite a few claims made against them and did not get put on the aircraft engine jobs. This job aircraft engines usually meant collecting in Scotland and delivering in either Holland, France, Germany, Italy, or Spain and you did not stop en route for sleep. Once loaded the vehicle should only stop for a ferry, or a toilet stop for the driver, and you went straight from collection to delivery as you were exempt from certain transport laws due to the nature of the cargo.

They did a study on sleep deprevation and found it to be more dangerous than driving under the influence of alcohol, so may be it doesnt apply to everyone. As I would generally be sleep deprived and running on white widow and coffee :sunglasses:

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that’s some torture-testing Herbie, nice, meth vs. white widow/coffee performance trials! The one thing I find with upper-type drugs, all of them, is the drop-off when it wears off. When cannabis wears off, I feel mostly the same.

One of the most interesting results of the NHTSA study is that all other drugs appear way safer than alcohol for driving. One theory is that alcohol has a very strong effect of increasing risk-taking behavior. It looks like this is more dangerous than having your reactions dulled a bit by something. Other drugs make people more cautious in response, alcohol seems to make people more confident in their driving as they become impaired.

36 hours shifts were the norm, 120 hours a week regular, its a nice job for a young single guy if your willing to live in a truck lol :sunglasses:

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damn, I’m considering a 15-hour drive over 2 days for the eclipse, wondering if I can do it by myself…what a wuss! 36 hours straight…that’s hardcore :smiling_imp:

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36 hours on 6 hours sleep do it again, rinse repeat. I used to be so in tune with my rig I actually heard I had a loading strap hook stuck in a tyre, 5 axles back on the trailer some 25metres behind my Cab, I pulled over and changed the wheel preventing a serious accident should it have blown out. You couldnt feel it in the behaviour of the trailer at 56mph , I didnt see it, road debris picked up coming off a ferry at the docks. Its a real bastard having to change a 22" wheel yourself when you’ve just had your only shower for 24 hours like 30 mins prior. I heard that through a 1 inch gap having my drivers window down slightly, the CD player on, the refridgeration freezer engine unit running on the trailer and travelling at 56mph, just hear a tick, tick, tick, tick noise and had the sense to pull over and check, dont think a drunk driver or high stim user would have done that !!

Most of the guys I knew smoked and drove or as they put it, smoke and fly dont drink and drive. We all geenrally had a very laid back attitude, that its better a bit late and in 1 peice than not at all. You cant fuck around in those 44 tonners they can do a lot of damage in a very small space and time. I lost a few friends through crashes where they fell asleep and yes they were all high stim users, and like you say the drop off is lethal. Having white widow helped me ignore the road rage and other aggresive arseholes that usually appeared around the rush hour periods all over the continent. The closer to the mediteranian coast the higher the tempers flew, it was funny watching from high above lol.

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Europe sounds a lot like the US!! I call them “rush hour psychos” :smile:

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Yes they do appear at the same time most days, like the sun moon and tide lol. I think each individual is different but most of the Lads I worked with were young English, Dutch and Germans and the one thing we all had incommon was that we smoked. Fatsest way to jump the que at the coffee shops near the ducth borders is to park a 44 tonner right outside esp on a Friday or Sat night, you get sent straight to the front of the que lol.

I once had an argument with a guy that was standing in for a coffees shop owner while he was on holiday in morrocco. He didnt want to sell me 50 grams and said your going over the border. I said yes now give it here you fool I live in that thing out there all fucking week, I cant come back here every day. Asked where Achmed was, the guy got a bit mouthy so I eneded up telling him, either give me the 50gram bag or that 44 toner is coming through the front door and then I will take everything you have in the shop, and yes it will go over the border and back several times, its my domicide.

Problem solved, got served and told a load more truckers to go park outside the front door if they want to jump the que on a friday night lol. After a few weeks of trucks queing down the street on friday nights he regretted taking that attitude with me a long standing paying customer.

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This is an awesome post.

Read up.

A double like for sure!

The NHTSA actually came out with another report on the topic this year - it denounces “per se” DUI laws for cannabis:

https://www.massroots.com/news/feds-slam-marijuana-impairment-testing-methods/?mc_cid=794cadb88b&mc_eid=f106a44daa

A new federal report harshly calls into question the accuracy and reliability of marijuana impairment testing methods that are commonly used by police departments across the country.

“A number of states have set a THC limit in their laws indicating that if a suspect’s THC concentration is above that level (typically 5 ng/ml of blood), then the suspect is to be considered impaired,” it says, referring to tetrahydrocannabinol, a component of marijuana that is associated with its psychoactive effects. “This per se limit appears to have been based on something other than scientific evidence. Some recent studies demonstrate that such per se limits are not evidence-based.”

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