Jeff Brubacher from Vancouver General Hospital published “Cannabis use as a risk factor for causing motor vehicle crashes: a prospective study.” The study has earned a great deal of press due to his finding that there was no increased risk of crash responsibility in the driver pool he studied for drivers with a blood THC level between 2 and 5 ng/ml. There was an increased risk of crash responsibility for drivers over 5 ng/ml, but … READ MORE
More bad legislation
Many states are considering legislation to deal with their drugged driving problem. The good news is that they recognize the problem. The bad news is that many of them don’t understand it. Particularly legislators in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. Legislators in these states have proposed bills that would either:
- Establish a 5 ng/ml THC per se limit for marijuana-impaired driving, or
- Fund studies to determine what the legal blood level of
More bad journalism
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
Tilting at windmills is also futile
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
The Denver Post got something right – almost
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 find yourself … READ MORE