Well-known California DUI lawyer Lawrence Taylor is now challenging whether DUI can be applied to marijuana usage.
Taylor is questioning whether marijuana impairs a person's ability to drive to the degree alcohol does. While there have been various tests regarding alcohol-impairment in driving, there are relatively few to support the same is true of cannabis.
The California Department of Justice has produced studies showing marijuana impairs the motor abilities that are needed for driving. This mostly occurs at high doses or among young, inexperienced drivers. Taylor is citing federal studies that contradict these findings.
One such study performed by the U.S. Department of Transportation researched the topic using a simulator to compare the affects of alcohol and marijuana, both separate and when combined. Alcohol created impairment across the board, while marijuana only occasionally impaired drivers.
Another study cited claims that cannabis, or THC, is not "profoundly impairing." Some information processing skills are impaired, but not to the ability that a person cannot control driving, according to the study.
A further issue over marijuana DUI laws is the fact that the drug is metabolized quickly but can stay in the body for hours or days. Traces of THC will remain in the body for weeks. Measuring these levels in blood tests may point to chemicals that have been in the body for days.
It would be difficult to prove a person was significantly impaired by marijuana at the time of an arrest for these reasons. First, marijuana only occasionally creates significant impairment, according to federal studies. Second, testing for marijuana use cannot pinpoint if and when the person was actually affected by the drug, only that it is in his or her system.
Laws in California are further complicated by the legal use of medicinal marijuana. Not every person who is found with marijuana in his or her system has even committed a crime. Some may have prescriptions for use of the drug, making the crime in effect no different than driving after taking anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medication.
Comments (8)
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I've seen many lives ruined because of physical addiction to alcohol, yet we all know the situation was much worse under prohibition.
END PROHIBITION!
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"People who are drunk tend to be aware that they can't do things well, and people around them oftentimes can tell that they are impaired.
Problem with people who are stoned THINK they can function well."
Actually, you have it absolutely backwards. Why do they call alcohol "Liquid Courage?" It's alcohol that makes people arrogant and feel like they are incapable of doing wrong. Marijuana increases inhibitions and fear and makes people well aware of the fact that they are high.
Also, anyone who remembers their first tobacco cigarette knows that tobacco can be very dizzying at first, but after a few cigarettes you are able to control your motor skills just fine. It's the same thing with marijuana, the first couple of times you might feel like you can't even walk, but after several uses, you will find you are able to play sports, draw, play musical instruments, with absolutely no impairment.
Finally, I've driven high, there really is no impairment.
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It's just another way to hassle people whose politics they don't like. Don't give them the 'pretext'.
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Problem with people who are stoned THINK they can function well. And it can be hard to tell that someone else is stoned. But you know what? It only takes one moment of your brain flipping a switch, a moment of serious distraction, to kill someone. Drunk doctor- aint making it into the opeating room. You can smell it on him. You can SEE a drunk. Stoned doctor- you won;t know until you're bleeding out on the operating tabel because he snipped the wrong thing.
You wanted sober people doing important things? Or stoned people? You want your life, you're families life, held at the whims of someone who is stoned? You want to risk it, be my guest.
This is thr problem with all pro-marijuana people- you don't think about people who may be affected by your arrogance. That you think you can fucntion normally while stoned. You're as bad as people who text while they drive. "Oh, I can multitask no problem!" Its all fun and games until you're driving and distracted by a pretty light in the sky and the next thing you know someone is dead.
And yes, I have smoke weed before. I lived in New orleans for four years. lived there when teh drinkign age was 18. And I did my fair share of drugs. And anyone who claims that smoking is "safe", well, I've seen people become some psychologically (no, not phsyically) addicted to the feeling of being stoned that it ruined their life.
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The debate over medical marijuana or cannabis is really a scandalous controversy over whether this very safe, effective, easy-to-grow herb should be allowed to compete with expensive pharmaceuticals with side effects guaranteed to make life no longer worth living.
Marijuana is safer than alcohol or tobacco. So why are we driving people to drink? It is downright sinister, a crime against humanity for the medicinal uses of cannabis to be suppressed. Cannabis oil is the cure all our ancestors used and did not let us all be brainwashed into forgetting. Some scientists speculate that cannabinoids play a protective role in the brain, slowing the rate of disease.
Unless the medication is approved by a physician within federal guidelines, drug warriors are against anyone feeling good, being at ease, being pain free. The people believe in self-government and self-medication. Warriors can get their adrenaline rush making us all safer, catching violent predators! Harassing the sick and dying is an un-American activity.
