slimvictor
Bluelight Crew
Less than two weeks after recreational pot stores opened their doors in Colorado, proponents of legalization appeared to have their first black eye. A 23-year-old named Keith Kilbey, seemingly under the influence of drugs, crashed his car into a state patrol car—which then crashed into another state patrol car. A day after the incident, an official spokesperson said they suspected that the driver had been using marijuana.
A month later, it’s unclear whether Kilbey was actually stoned, and even less clear whether he purchased marijuana at a new pot shop. And a young man poised to be harbinger of all the stoned drivers to come is now a reminder of how long it’s going to be before Colorado and Washington can really tell what impact legal weed is making on their states.
The potential for legal marijuana to yield more impaired drivers on the road has been a talking point throughout the political process in both states—as well as states like Alaska that may soon be voting on legalization—but the reality of that risk and how to assess it are pretty hazy. “It’s generally part of this conversation everywhere,” says Mason Tvert, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project. “It’s not an easy question.”
While alcohol regulations have given officials a starting point for developing some marijuana-related rules, like how far vendors have to be from schools, there’s no simple parallel when it comes to driving. “It’s not like alcohol,” says Emily Wilfong, spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Transportation. “People metabolize it differently. There are different potencies. So there’s really no solution in terms of saying ‘you’re now at the limit.’”
Colorado will start spending $430,000 of federal grant money in March on an awareness campaign driving home the message that driving while high is illegal; the state will put up posters in pot dispensaries and broadcast ads with the tagline, “Drive high, get a DUI.” Wilfong says that the campaign won’t, however, include any advice like how long someone should wait to drive after smoking weed or eating a pot brownie. “I just don’t think there’s enough research that we can say ‘Wait x amount of hours before getting on the road,’” says Wilfong. “I don’t know whether it’s five hours or 10 hours or the next day. We just don’t know.”
Both Colorado and Washington have, technically, settled on limits for how much THC a driver can have in his or her system while behind the wheel: a maximum of five nanograms per milliliter of blood. But there’s no handy chart that translates that scientific gobbledygook into as easy self-assessment. Various studies have tried to suss out how long marijuana remains in the system but reached no single conclusion that could be used as the basis for new DUI laws. Brian Vicente, a lawyer at a Denver firm that deals solely in marijuana-related issues, points out that research on high driving conducted in pre-legalization days often lacks the necessary context, like distinguishing between active THC (which might stay in someone’s blood for a few hours) and metabolized (which can remain for weeks).
cont at
http://nation.time.com/2014/02/11/legal-weeds-effect-on-stoned-driving-remains-hazy/
A month later, it’s unclear whether Kilbey was actually stoned, and even less clear whether he purchased marijuana at a new pot shop. And a young man poised to be harbinger of all the stoned drivers to come is now a reminder of how long it’s going to be before Colorado and Washington can really tell what impact legal weed is making on their states.
The potential for legal marijuana to yield more impaired drivers on the road has been a talking point throughout the political process in both states—as well as states like Alaska that may soon be voting on legalization—but the reality of that risk and how to assess it are pretty hazy. “It’s generally part of this conversation everywhere,” says Mason Tvert, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project. “It’s not an easy question.”
While alcohol regulations have given officials a starting point for developing some marijuana-related rules, like how far vendors have to be from schools, there’s no simple parallel when it comes to driving. “It’s not like alcohol,” says Emily Wilfong, spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Transportation. “People metabolize it differently. There are different potencies. So there’s really no solution in terms of saying ‘you’re now at the limit.’”
Colorado will start spending $430,000 of federal grant money in March on an awareness campaign driving home the message that driving while high is illegal; the state will put up posters in pot dispensaries and broadcast ads with the tagline, “Drive high, get a DUI.” Wilfong says that the campaign won’t, however, include any advice like how long someone should wait to drive after smoking weed or eating a pot brownie. “I just don’t think there’s enough research that we can say ‘Wait x amount of hours before getting on the road,’” says Wilfong. “I don’t know whether it’s five hours or 10 hours or the next day. We just don’t know.”
Both Colorado and Washington have, technically, settled on limits for how much THC a driver can have in his or her system while behind the wheel: a maximum of five nanograms per milliliter of blood. But there’s no handy chart that translates that scientific gobbledygook into as easy self-assessment. Various studies have tried to suss out how long marijuana remains in the system but reached no single conclusion that could be used as the basis for new DUI laws. Brian Vicente, a lawyer at a Denver firm that deals solely in marijuana-related issues, points out that research on high driving conducted in pre-legalization days often lacks the necessary context, like distinguishing between active THC (which might stay in someone’s blood for a few hours) and metabolized (which can remain for weeks).
cont at
http://nation.time.com/2014/02/11/legal-weeds-effect-on-stoned-driving-remains-hazy/
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