{"id":51852,"date":"2021-12-20T10:51:58","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T18:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2021\/12\/20\/senator-calls-for-federal-marijuana-standard-to-measure-impaired-driving\/"},"modified":"2021-12-20T13:45:37","modified_gmt":"2021-12-20T21:45:37","slug":"senator-calls-for-federal-marijuana-standard-to-measure-impaired-driving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2021\/12\/20\/senator-calls-for-federal-marijuana-standard-to-measure-impaired-driving\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Calls For Federal Marijuana Standard To Measure Impaired Driving"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

The current patchwork of marijuana driving policies in states across the U.S. isn\u2019t workable, a senator said at a recent hearing, urging the establishment of a federal cannabis impairment standard.<\/p>\n

Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) spoke about the issue last week during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee confirmation hearing for President Joe Biden\u2019s nominee to serve as director of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).<\/p>\n

The senator brought up that the president recently signed an infrastructure bill<\/a> that contained an amendment he sponsored requiring federal agencies, including the Department of Transportation, to study and issue a report on federal regulatory barriers related to studies on marijuana impaired driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe first legalized recreational marijuana in Colorado, which I opposed in the beginning,\u201d Hickenlooper said. \u201cI thought there would be all kinds of increases in teenage driving, teenage consumption, frequency of use.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t seen any of that\u2014but we do recognize that we don\u2019t have a good way to measure intoxication level,\u201d he said, adding that under Colorado law, a person found to be driving with more than five nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood can be used as evidence of impairment.<\/p>\n

That policy has faced criticism from advocates who say that the standard is arbitrary and an unreliable indicator of impaired driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cNORML\u2014along with NHTSA, AAA, and virtually every other expert body in this field\u2014opposes the imposition of arbitrary, criminal per se limits for those who operate a motor vehicle with trace levels of either THC or its metabolites,\u201d NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano told Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch standards are an unscientific and inadvisable public policy response to behavior that is already sufficiently addressed by states\u2019 existing traffic safety laws which explicitly prohibit operating a vehicle while under the influence of a controlled substance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In any case, the senator pointed out that NHTSA hasn\u2019t released an updated report on cannabis and driving since 2017, and he asked the nominee, Steven Cliff, if he\u2019d commit to working with lawmakers to \u201cdevelop a federal marijuana impaired driving standard so that we can have something as a national standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch the discussion<\/a> on marijuana and driving standards, starting around 1:36:30 into the video below:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cAbsolutely. If I\u2019m confirmed, I look forward to working with this committee on impaired driving and, in particular, the marijuana issue that you mentioned,\u201d Cliff replied.<\/p>\n

Hickenlooper added that \u201cit is one of those things that\u2014it\u2019s not going away. It\u2019s coming, and I think we need to address it and get out ahead of it as quickly as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legalization supporters and opponents share the goal of preventing people from driving under the influence. NORML\u2019s Armentano said that policymakers should \u201cfocus on methods to better assess impairment of performance\u201d such as enhancing drug recognition expert training within law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe further development and use of such tools and public service campaigns would increase public support for the regulation of cannabis use by adults by helping to assuage concerns that liberalizing cannabis laws could potentially lead to an increase in incidences of drugged driving or limit the state\u2019s ability to successfully identify and prosecute said behavior,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Experts and advocates have emphasized that evidence isn\u2019t clear on the relationship between THC concentrations in blood and impairment.<\/p>\n

A study published in 2019, for example, concluded that those who drive at the legal THC limit\u2014which is typically between two to five nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood\u2014were not statistically more likely to be involved in an accident<\/a>\u00a0compared to people who haven\u2019t used marijuana.<\/p>\n

Separately, the\u00a0Congressional Research Service in 2019 determined<\/a>\u00a0that while \u201cmarijuana consumption can affect a person\u2019s response times and motor performance\u2026 studies of the impact of marijuana consumption on a driver\u2019s risk of being involved in a crash have produced conflicting results, with some studies finding little or no increased risk of a crash from marijuana usage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another recent study found that smoking CBD-rich marijuana had\u00a0\u201cno significant impact\u201d on driving ability<\/a>, despite the fact that all study participants exceeded the per se limit for THC in their blood.<\/p>\n

\n

AOC Calls On Biden To Use Executive Authority On Marijuana Policy As President\u2019s Agenda Stalls In Congress<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Photo courtesy of Martin Alonso<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Senator Calls For Federal Marijuana Standard To Measure Impaired Driving<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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\nRead More: Senator Calls For Federal Marijuana Standard To Measure Impaired Driving<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The current patchwork of marijuana driving policies in states across the U.S. isn\u2019t workable, a senator said at a recent hearing, urging the establishment of a federal cannabis impairment standard. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) spoke about the issue last week during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee confirmation hearingContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51852"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51853,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51852\/revisions\/51853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}