Cannabis and driving? Studies reveal big risks
news.cuanschutz.eduIt's not unexpected that infrequent users are more impacted by acute use.
The article doesn't quantify accident risk, from what I can see.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), however, actually has quantified the relative change in accident risk. [1]
The table in the linked document (N/A = not available):
Crash Risk Culpability
Alcohol (BAC = 0.02) 1.03–1.19 1.36
Alcohol (BAC = 0.05) 1.38–1.75 2.19
Alcohol (BAC = 0.08) 2.69–2.92 3.63
Cannabis 1.11–1.42 1.20–1.42
Antidepressants 1.35–1.40 N/A
Antihistamines 1.12 N/A
Benzodiazepines and Z-hypnotics 1.17–2.30 1.41
Opiates 1.68–2.29 1.47
If the system was really fair, it would perform a field sobriety test to prove impairment. Recognising that cannabis use only increases crash risk by the same amount as a legal BAC would be a good start.
[1] https://www1.racgp.org.au/getattachment/ef4cc327-723b-42c9-b...
> Participants in the occasional and daily groups used their own cannabis at the doses they typically consume.
> “We didn’t tell people what to use because there’s a really big continuum of how people use and how they respond to that dosage,” Brooks-Russell said, explaining that they wanted these studies to reflect how people use cannabis outside of the lab.
Actually a really smart process decision - in past studies I’ve seen they always used a prescribed dose but having the participants choose makes a lot of sense
I don't see how anyone would even want to attempt to drive while baked.
/Some/ people view Cannabis as some wonder drug, that has no negative effects whatsoever, and really play on that idea.
These same people also wanted to keep it medicinal, so if they kill a family while under the influence, it's not counted as under the influence.
Because it's fun, and many people (myself of 15 years ago included) are fucking idiots.
I am still an idiot. But driving baked would be impossible :)
Practice makes perfect I guess.
Risks may include:
- Stopping at green lights
- Dropping the doob between the seats
- The Ozium can rolling out of reach
- Driving thru multiple fast food venues in one trip
ozium reference was a nice touch - always was told that was the best for pot smoke, meanwhile it just made the room smell like weed and cherries
n=1 but I see tons of distracted driving, like relatedly people still text and talk and drive and... it mostly works out ok
So still probably ideal for people to aim to be perfectly sober and focused, but... we might end up "ok" in a lot of cases even if that ideal isn't achieved
TL;DR Nonsense "study"
A study for real world risks based on a videogame, of all things? Its impossible to directly map the experience of being behind the wheel in real life to a game, and the article doesn't even mention whether it's an actual simulation (like beam.NG), game-like (as in Assetto Corsa), or plain arcade fantasy (GTA, Need for Speed) OBVIOUSLY people are gonna play games in a more fun/different way under the influence They even admit that inhaled usage showed little to no consistency in driving difference Bias disclaimer: I stopped consumption some time back
"Participants got behind the wheel of a driving simulator equipped with everything you’d find in a real car – from the steering wheel to the pedals and dashboard. A large touchscreen, similar to those found in newer vehicles, allows for music to play and text messages to come through. Three oversized monitors provide 180 degrees of visual coverage to create a realistic, immersive driving environment."
Seems pretty clearly a simulator, they use that word several times.
Still a simulator is not going to replicate the mind set of actually driving a vehicle. It probably helps a little bit that the participants are high, but still it’s not even close.
racing drivers train on them. So I'd say they get pretty close.