Ah, the classic “you must be on drugs to say that”. Throwing a smiley on the end doesn’t make it any less offensive. If the studies are so easy to find, why don’t you show them instead of using ad hominem attacks to distract us from the fact that your post is all emotion and no science?
We can close the case now! China Guy, expert of experts, has given us the honor of descending from his throne to lay The Truth upon us. He can’t be wrong–his cite is the almighty China Guy!
Would I be wrong to guess that you were usually drunk, drinking or at least with drunk friends when you drove stoned, back in those days? That could certainly affect your perspective.
As long as the court is admitting anecdotes as evidence, I’ve driven stoned hundreds of times and never even came close to causing an accident. Those who’ve been in my car while I’ve been stoned and while I haven’t, will tell you that I’m more cautious and less nausea-inducing when I’m driving high. I drove a short distance on the tail end of a Jaeger buzz once–I was pretty darn close to the legal limit of about one drink’s worth, since it had been several hours since I’d finished off the last drink–and, expecting it to be like driving stoned, I was blown away by how difficult it was to stay in a lane, turn at the right angles, etc. and how much more concentration and effort it took. I’d rather drive with a million stoners than five drinkers.
I agree with what fetus said but I also just want to say that I never said that it made you a better driver. Chances are that it may slow your reaction time down slightly as has been shown in studies. In my personal experience, and apparently the experiences of a number of people in the studies, the fact that people usually drive slower when stoned helps to compensate for the slightly diminished response time. When people are high, many times they realize it and they compensate for it by driving slower, as opposed to drunks who usually drive much more recklessly.
If he’s approaching college application time, you might want to look into the rules on drugs and financial aid. It may have changed, but it used to be that one drug related conviction barred you (essentially) from receiving any money from the government for college.
Then I’d argue you’re somewhere between misguided and delusional. JMO. Also note that when I said “drinkers”, I was clearly (read my anecdote) referring to people driving at or just barely above the legal limit, not raging drunks coming off a long night of slamming down whiskey by the bottle.
The punishment is that you’re cut off from federal government aid for life. Pretty big deal, but it can be a lot smaller depending on what state you’re in and what your school does to help out. And I think it’s a little bit more lenient as to who they nail–I can’t remember what the new rule is, but I think they bumped it up to a selling offense, or maybe just a felony drug offense. Either way, that’s an important point I’d forgotten. Again, it’s a question of knowing how it works where you live; if your state has a diversion program, the feds may not ever know. But it’s worth knowing. And SHAKES, it can be a good opportunity to fight some ignorance with your son–you can research the law together.