DUID Victim Network
The world is coming to realize that the infamous 5 ng/ml THC legal limit imposed by Colorado, Washington, and Montana are badly flawed. The marijuana lobby claims users can be unimpaired at levels higher than that. New research shows that drivers are impaired at levels well below that. This is a position we’ve taken for years, and welcome the fact that others agree.
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety issued a press release saying, “New … READ MORE
We’re getting the word out about DUID, and our research is now being acknowledged by the scientific community! For the last few years, we’ve conducted research into the causes of DUI in Colorado’s vehicular homicide and vehicular assault cases. This has resulted in two papers, both of which have now been published.
Delays in DUI blood testing, co-authored with Ashley Brooks-Russell, MPH, PhD and Phillip Drum, Pharm D was published by the peer-reviewed journal … READ MORE
Jacob Sullum, a pro-pot writer for Reason and Fortune magazines, is at it again.
This time, he claims that marijuana’s impact on crash risk has been greatly exaggerated, based upon Rogeberg and Elvik’s (R&E) paper, soon to be published in the journal Addiction. Sullum, in his typical snarky style, writes that there’s not much evidence of a surge in traffic fatalities due to marijuana-impairment in Colorado or Washington. This shouldn’t be a surprise, … READ MORE
Two recent research reports explain why blood tests are ineffective for determining driving impairment by marijuana, and why impairment-based DUI per se blood level limits for marijuana are useless.
Rebecca Hartman’s team (R.L. Hartman et al. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.06.015 ) led the groundbreaking Iowa driving simulator study that showed, “During drive blood THC ≥8.2 ?g/L increased SDLP similar to notably-impairing alcohol concentrations.” She followed up with a report in Clinical Chemistry this year (R.L. Hartman et al. … READ MORE
At least six media outlets quickly issued a story on the February 10, 2016 release of DUI/DUID arrest statistics by the Colorado State Patrol (CSP). Consistent with past practice, all of the media outlets ignored impairment by controlled substances other than marijuana, perpetuating the myth that DUID is all about marijuana. Although their reports focused solely on marijuana, reports and headlines of Fox News, The Colorado Springs Gazette and North Denver News were accurate.
All … READ MORE
Noelle Phillips and Elizabeth Hernandez got some things right in their Denver Post article, “State still not sure whether legal pot made roads less safe.” The article was generally well done and reasonably accurate.
Colorado’s DUI law, which has a single definition of DUI irrespective of cause was correctly cited as a prime reason that Colorado is woefully behind in attempting to understand the impact of marijuana on road safety. If you don’t measure … READ MORE
I confess to having one of the more foolish members of Congress as my representative – Jared Polis. He managed to dupe the rest of Congress into including a portion of his “LUCID” Act into the recently enacted 1,300-page highway bill. Fortunately, the irresponsible portions of Polis’s proposal didn’t make it, only the wasteful portion.
The enacted portion requires the Secretary of Transportation to conduct a study on marijuana-impaired driving, in the belief that drugged … READ MORE
Forbes Magazine has joined the Denver Post, the Los Angeles Times and other rags that spread misinformation about drugged driving. Jacob Sullum’s Colorado’s Prosecutors Complain They Have To Prove DUID Defendants Were Actually Impaired was the most recent in his series of inept DUID reports published by Forbes.
Sullum, like many others, confuses the misdemeanors DUI and DUI per se. Although they may carry identical sentences, they are distinct charges. Proof of impairment … READ MORE
I attended an Advanced DRE/Green Lab course in November, sponsored by Chris Halsor of Understanding Legal Marijuana, LLC. The course catered to Drug Recognition Experts (DREs) wishing to learn more about marijuana-impaired driving: how to detect it and to document and present evidence in court to achieve convictions. It included lectures, visits to marijuana dispensaries and a grow facility, and a green lab that provided an opportunity to question and evaluate regular daily marijuana … READ MORE
Judge Mary Celeste of the Judicial Speaker Institute interviewed me on a Podcast for the Justice Speakers Institute. The podcast of the interview is now available for download at no charge.
The interview focused on the results of DUID Victim Voice’s most recent research: DUID Prevalence in Colorado’s DUI Citations. The research covered all vehicular homicide and vehicular assault charges in Colorado in 2013, 78% of which were also DUI cases. We covered the following … READ MORE