When the cherry and spicy luminousness lead off flashing in your car ’s rearview mirror , your stomach sinks . And then panic set in . You do n’t have any weed on your somebody , but you smoke a arena before leaving a ally ’s low - key company . Desperate , you reach for the tune freshener and rub it on your shirt just as the military officer exits thepatrol machine .
As you find yourself outside your fomite performing the cursory sobriety tests – following a move pen with your eyes , walk heel to toe and abide on one foot – your sense of impend doomsday slice , and you feel a gleam of promise . You may be completely bake , but you ’re sailing through these assessment like an Olympic gymnast .
Turns out , field of honor sobriety tests catch nearly 90 percent of drivers who are under the influence of intoxicant , but they are far less in force at spotting driver under the influence of marijuana . In one bailiwick , a bare 30 percent of drivers under the influence of THC , which is the active ingredient in marijuana , fail these standard sobriety test .
So , with all these lapidate number one wood , are they any more grave than intoxicated driver ?
It ’s clear marijuana manipulation negatively affects one ’s power to repulse , making a person twice as likely to get in an accident . However , the odds are demonstrably worse when drinking and drive . An analytic thinking of Union crash data happen that driver who are young ( 20 - something ) and at the sound limit for driving ( blood alcohol contentof .08 percent ) , are 20 times more likely to get into a deadly accident than their sober match . The increased risk continue for older number one wood , too . Even up to years 34 , they are nine times more potential to die in a motorcar accident when driving with a blood - alcohol content of .08 percent . Once this legal boundary is surpass with another drink or two , the odds of fatality only step-up .
The difference in effect for stoned driver versus drunk driver lie in the fashion pit drivers act behind the wheel . While drunk drivers tend to speed up and make wild decisions , stoned driver lollygag along and dally it safe . They ’re more potential to be stop for driving far below thespeed limitthan for pass by it . Plus , marijuana enthusiasts often toke at home , which lessens the betting odds of them drive around stoned in the first place [ germ : Koerth - Baker ] .
Some even credit the legalization of marijuana with making roads safe . For instance , a inspection of 13 state that approved medical marijuana legislation between 1990 and 2009 find that dealings destruction decrease by an average of nearly 9 pct . Some speculate that as the use of marijuana increase in those states , the use of inebriant may have decreased . What ’s more , several study describe that smoking a small amount of marijuana – about a third of a joint – has little shock on a number one wood ’s power behind the rack . Those who are wonted pile smoker can stand temperate back breaker of tetrahydrocannabinol with little negative affect on driving performance . However , driver with very high level of THC in their bloodstream had worry stay in their lanes and responding to unexpected obstacles [ sources : Sandell , Palmer ] .
While some studies may show that drive stoned is no worse than drive intoxicated – and that marijuana utilization may even tender an edge when it comes to maintaining slow hurrying – the good policy is to refrain from getting behind the wheel at all if one ’s sobriety is in query . And mixing inebriant and marijuana makes you an even more severe number one wood than just being drunk .
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The research on this was surprising . I did n’t have a bun in the oven to incur such differences between alcohol and marijuana when it comes to get behind the bike . The fact that most marijuana enthusiasts partake at plate rather than at the cabaret – and are thereby able to avoid the risk of drive while impaired – was especially affecting .
