Medical Marijuana Users Risk Running Afoul of DUI Laws

The standard is a tad strict

Now that Nevada's Legislature has ended 13 years of ignoring a voter-approved constitutional mandate to provide medical marijuana to sick people, everything's fine. Right? …

Maybe not.

While plenty of time was spent this session getting the dispensary bill passed, the Legislature ran out of time to consider a separate bill that addressed the issue of driving under the influence of marijuana.

Medical marijuana users — if they're not careful — could easily violate the DUI standard found in Nevada Revised Statutes 484C.120(3), which says it's against the law to drive with more than 2 nanograms of marijuana per milliliter in your blood, or 5 nanograms of marijuana metabolite. (A nanogram is a billionth of a gram, and a milliliter is 1/1000th of a liter.)

Comments

[Krymsun]

Studies Show Marijuana Consumption Not Associated With Dangerous Driving, May Lead to Safer Drivers
May 21, 2013

Anyone who consumes cannabis on a regular basis knows that it doesn't make you a dangerous driver. Many people find that it makes them a safer, more focused driver; one that's more aware of their surroundings and the dangers associated with controlling tons of gasoline-filled metal. Not only has this been an anecdotal truth for as long as cars and cannabis have been paired, science has also been clear that consuming marijuana doesn't make you a dangerous driver, and may make some people safer drivers. More research is needed, but it's hard to deny that of the research we have, marijuana hasn't been found to increase a person's risk of an accident. To back this claim up, here's a list of studies and research conducted on this very topic, some of which were funded by national governments in hopes of different results.

Drunk Drivers Are 30 Times More Likely To Get In An Accident Than Cannabis Consumers
http://www.theweedblog.com/dru.....consumers/

[Krymsun]

Risk of severe driver injury by driving with psychoactive substances
Accident Analysis & Prevention
http://www.sciencedirect.com/s.....7513002315

"20 years of study has concluded that marijuana smokers may actually have fewer accidents than other drivers."
Top 10 Reasons Marijuana Users Are Safer Drivers
http://www.4autoinsurancequote.....e-drivers/

[Krymsun]

"No differences were found during the baseline driving segment (and the) collision avoidance scenarios,"
Research published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 2010
http://healthland.time.com/201.....ic-deaths/

"Although cognitive studies suggest that cannabis use may lead to unsafe driving, experimental studies have suggested that it can have the opposite effect."
U.S. National Library of Medicine; The Effect Of Cannabis Compared With Alcohol On Driving, 2009 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm.....MC2722956/

[Krymsun]

"There is no evidence that consumption of cannabis alone increases the risk of culpability for traffic crash fatalities or injuries for which hospitalization occurs, and may reduce those risks."
Research paper published in Epidemiologic Reviews; Role of cannabis in motor vehicle crashes, 1999

"Evidence from the present and previous studies strongly suggests that alcohol encourages risky driving whereas THC encourages greater caution"
University of Adelaide study; Marijuana's effects on actual driving performance, 1995
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Misc/driving/s1p2.htm

[Krymsun]

"Drivers under the influence of marijuana retain insight in their performance and will compensate when they can, for example, by slowing down or increasing effort. As a consequence, THC's adverse effects on driving performance appear relatively small."
U.S. Department of Transportation study; Marijuana and actual driving performance, 1993
http://www.druglibrary.org/sch.....g/s1p2.htm