A new study in Canada on cannabis and
\ndriving is challenging the idea that people are not safe to drive cars unless
\nthey have zero THC in their system. The study\u2019s authors say that THC can indeed
\nimpair driving \u2014 but that applying laws designed for booze to marijuana is bad
\nscience and bad policy.<\/p>\n
With cannabis legal in Canada<\/a>, authorities have been grappling with how to deal with the question of THC and\u00a0road safety. Canada currently requires that drivers have no more than two nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood (a very small amount), but some states go further and allow no THC at all, a compound that can linger in blood for days after consumption. <\/p>\n However, the study, undertaken by Canadian researchers and released One of the study\u2019s leaders, retired University of Victoria professor Scott Macdonald, told Canada\u2019s\u00a0Global News<\/a>\u00a0that the findings indicate a zero-tolerance standard for THC in the bloodstream of motorists is \u201cnot scientific.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI consider it one of the biggest myths about cannabis, that Here\u2019s how the study worked. Researchers at the Toronto-based Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH<\/a>) gave participants 10 minutes to smoke cannabis to a level of their own choosing and then tested them in the simulator. The simulator has all the trappings of an actual car: seatbelt, ignition, steering wheel, and gas and brake pedals. But it takes place indoors in a laboratory, not on the road. The windshield is actually a computer screen displaying a virtual-reality road, complete with oncoming traffic in the other lane, the occasional stalled vehicle on the shoulder and other potential crash opportunities.<\/p>\n Because participants could control their own consumption, THC blood Immediately after smoking, the THC group indeed showed signs of \u201cWe found significant evidence of difference in driver behavior, While alcohol dissipates from the bloodstream rapidly after \u201cThe biological tests are not useful for identifying people Some states in America have adopted that model, where police officer In Colorado, for example, the legal blood limit for THC is five nanograms per milliliter of blood. However, the state\u2019s Department of Transportation notes<\/a>, \u201cNo matter the level of THC, law enforcement officers base arrests on observed impairment.\u201d In California, it is illegal to drive under the influence of any drug<\/a>, but there is no blood THC limit. <\/p>\n Several Canadian provinces currently take a zero-tolerance approach In Saskatchewan, the law is even harsher. In that province, new The\u00a0Ontario Transportation Ministry<\/a>\u00a0defends its policy. \u201cIn October 2018, the Canadian Society of Forensic Science released a report stating that impairment from cannabis begins almost immediately and can last up to six hours or more, depending on factors such as THC levels and how it is consumed,\u201d a ministry spokesperson said in an e-mailed response to Global News. \u201cSince the effects of cannabis vary, there is no way to know exactly how long to wait before it is safe for you to drive.\u201d<\/p>\n This study, online at the\u00a0Canadian Society of Forensic Science<\/a>, is obviously contradicted by the new findings of the CAMH.<\/p>\n In America, states set the rules about driving high. In Canada, provinces have their own rules, but there is a federal umbrella of laws. Under Canada\u2019s Cannabis Act, two to five nanograms of THC per milliliter is a \u201csummary conviction offense\u201d \u2014 Canada\u2019s equivalent of a misdemeanor. Higher levels are a \u201chybrid offense\u201d \u2014 a special category under Canadian law between the U.S. equivalents of a misdemeanor and a felony.<\/p>\n Advocates are arguing now, that in the face of studies that show THC The point about alcohol standards not working with THC in such matters has been made before. It is why the top court in Massachusetts\u00a0struck down<\/a>\u00a0roadside sobriety tests for cannabis in 2017.<\/p>\n But beyond the discrepancy in how long the offending substance A study released by Kansas State University earlier this year found that\u00a0cannabis legalization is not linked to an increase in traffic deaths<\/a>\u00a0in the United States. This may come as little surprise to those with experience in cannabis\u2019 actual effects, but challenges an entrenched assumption of prohibitionist propaganda (which is obviously today much stronger in the U.S. than in Canada).\u00a0<\/p>\n The entire question of \u201cmarijuana-impaired driving\u201d tends to be misunderstood.\u00a0For example, it is true that Colorado\u00a0has seen an increase<\/a>\u00a0in overall road fatalities since legalization in 2012, as well as an increase in cannabis-related driving offenses. But the increase in road fatalities is consistent with the trend across the U.S. \u2014 and likely related to more motorists on the highways due to low oil prices. It was fortuitous for the prohibitionists that the world oil slump began in 2014, just in time to provide a negative spin for cannabis legalization.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n While there is no excuse for impaired drivers getting on the road (obviously), the long-term answers to reducing traffic fatalities lie in a far-reaching reconfiguration of urban design and transportation infrastructure, in the U.S. and Canada alike. The\u00a0Green New Deal<\/a>\u00a0now being proposed by progressive Congress members in the U.S. at least begins to\u00a0open this conversation.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> do you think The post Study: Having Cannabis \u2018In Your System\u2019 Doesn\u2019t Mean It\u2019s Unsafe to Drive<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A new study in Canada on cannabis and driving is challenging the idea that people are not safe to drive cars unless they have zero THC in their system. The study\u2019s authors say that THC can indeed impair driving \u2014 but that applying laws designed for booze to marijuana isContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,50,1697,90,187],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40254,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40253\/revisions\/40254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nin December, finds that subjects using a \u201cdriving simulator\u201d showed
\nno signs of impairment a day after they smoked cannabis \u2014 even though they
\nstill tested positive for THC.<\/p>\n
\nthere are 24-hour hangover effects that are measurable,\u201d Macdonald said.
\n\u201cWhen people smoke cannabis, they\u2019re only impaired for a short, short
\nperiod of time. You could have THC in your bloodstream, but you\u2019re not a
\ndanger.\u201d<\/p>\nHigh Drivers Are Impaired, But Not For Days<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nlevels in the group varied, ranging from zero to 42 nanograms per milliliter.
\nSome were also given THC-free cannabis as a placebo.<\/p>\n
\nimpairment, centering the virtual car poorly in its lane and driving at an
\ninappropriately slow speed. However, in follow-up tests 24 and 48 hours later,
\nthey performed normally in the simulator \u2014 despite still having detectable THC
\nlevels in their blood.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nheart rate and self-reported drug effects 30 minutes after smoking cannabis,
\nbut\u2026 we found little evidence to support residual effects,\u201d the authors
\nwrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nintoxication, THC can keep showing up on tests long after any impairment has
\nended. Macdonald told Global News: \u201cYou can\u2019t just use the laws that we
\nhave for alcohol and apply them to cannabis, especially now that cannabis is
\nlegal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthat represent a safety risk,\u201d he added. \u201cWhat we\u2019re left with is
\nbehavioral symptoms. We\u2019re still working on developing tests to assess whether
\nan individual who consumes cannabis is a safety risk. It\u2019s hard to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\ndiscretion is allowed to determine if someone is high rather than blood testing.\n<\/p>\n\u2028Law Out of Wack with Science\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nto THC in the blood of\u00a0young or new drivers. In Ontario, new drivers
\nviolating the THC zero-tolerance rule face a three-day license suspension, plus
\na $250 fine on top of a $281 license reinstatement fee. And that\u2019s just for the
\nfirst offense. Penalties go up for a second and third.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\ndrivers with any level THC face a 60-day license suspension, a three-day
\nvehicle seizure and four demerit points.<\/p>\n
\nis not impairing after 24 hours, the laws in Canada should change. <\/p>\nThe Tough Questions\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nremains in the bloodstream, alcohol also impairs far more than cannabis does.
\nAs Macdonald admitted to Global News:\u00a0\u201cCannabis is not in the same
\nclass as alcohol in terms of safety risk. Alcohol is much, much worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthere should be a cannabis breathalyzer test?<\/p>\n
\n
\nRead More: Study: Having Cannabis \u2018In Your System\u2019 Doesn\u2019t Mean It\u2019s Unsafe to Drive<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"