I have a couple of friends who will not drink and drive, but who believe smoking weed and driving is okay. From my experience, that’s ridiculous. What can I say to them, or refer them to, to have them smarten up? Or don’t you agree with me?
I remember there was a big controversy over an article in some auto magazine back in the early 1970s, the article was called “Doping and Driving.” The magazine had the nerve to put dope to a “road test.” And the results were very surprising.
The survey tried to examine the effects of pot smoking on a range of people, including people who had never smoked before, casual users of various consumption levels, and heavy daily smokers. They tested the subjects both while sober and while stoned, using an array of scientific tests of reaction time, perception, etc, the same experiments they used to test alcohol’s effects on driving. They also gave the subjects a road test on a closed course and observed their performance.
What they found was that inexperienced or light dopers were all impaired when doping. Some people were almost incapacitated, some showed only light impairment. The moderate dopers showed virtually no impairment.
BUT… The heavy dopers showed an astonishing response. When stoned, every single one of them IMPROVED their test scores over their sober testing. One stoned test subject gave the fastest reaction time ever recorded by these experimenters, but had unremarkable scores when sober. All of these heavy dopers were judged to be much better drivers when stoned than when sober.
The conclusion was, if you are not an experienced smoker, don’t smoke and drive. But if you are experienced, it will not be a problem.
Well, regardless of the results of the study mentioned above, its common sense not to drive while intoxicated with anything.
And its illegal.
Tell your friends that there is simply no excuse. If they insist, don’t get in their car.
Chas E. Just like those chocolate bars of the 60’s:), dope has changed one hell of a lot. I get higher today on one toke ,than a whole fat joint from the seventies. Now I rarely imbibe because I just get totally incapacitated.Are you sure you weren’t halucinating when you read that report?
I wouldn’t dare get behind the wheel if I toked. The first thing that goes is my judgement of distance, and the second is coherent speech which I would certainly be in need of if I were stopped by a cop. I also believe that if I were in an accident, and dope was detected in my blood, then insurance won’t cover me. This report could be of interest to some of us that get into this predicament. Certainly our lawyers should be made aware of it.Can you recall the periodical and the particular issue?
grienspace, I distinctly recall the title, which was “Doping and Driving” and it was the cover story. I don’t recall what magazine it appeared in, it was either Car and Driver or Road and Track. Some car magazine like that, with an “and” in the middle. It appeared when I was in High School, I distinctly remember the librarian removing this issue from the magazine rack and I had to go to the public library to read it. All the dopers in high school were talking about the article, otherwise I would never have heard about it. Anyway, I don’t recall the specific issue or date, it would have appeared sometime around 1973. I’m sure a search of the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature for the title “doping and driving” during the '70-75 era would turn up the article.
BTW, if you believe that pot today is different or stronger, I can only offer you my sympathy for missing out on the 1970s.
I saw something more recent in a college text on drugs. They did a closed course driving test on a number of subjects, both before and after smoking ‘moderate amounts’ of marijuana (it did not define what a ‘moderate amount’ was, though). I do remember the statistics - 44% tested better after smoking, 16% tested worse, and the rest showed no real difference.
I smoke and drive all the time, and I think I drive better high. I know I have never had an accident while high, while I have made a lot of stupid driving mistakes while sober. It seems to increase my ability to concentrate on the task of driving, probably because when I am high NOTHING is boring. I also do a lot better at most video games after smoking up (while I do have problems with strategy games where momentary memory loss can screw you up).
I think if someone gets pulled over for driving under the influence, they should give them the field sobriety test. If the fail it, whether high, drunk, or sober, they shouldn’t be driving.