cannabisnews.com: Cannabis May Make You a Safer Driver





Cannabis May Make You a Safer Driver
Posted by FoM on August 15, 2000 at 07:28:42 PT
By Jonathon Carr-Brown 
Source: The Sunday Times
Taking the high road may not be so dangerous after all. Ministers are set to be embarrassed by government-funded research which shows that driving under the influence of drugs makes motorists more cautious and has a limited impact on their risk of crashing. In the study, conducted by the Transport Research Laboratory, grade A cannabis specially imported from America was given to 15 regular users. The doped- up drivers were then put through four weeks of tests on driving simulators to gauge reaction times and awareness. 
Regular smokers were used because previous tests in America using first- timers resulted in the volunteers falling over and feeling ill. The laboratory found its guinea pigs through what it described as a "snowballing technique" - one known user was asked to find another after being promised anonymity and exemption from prosecution agreed with the Home Office. Instead of proving that drug-taking while driving increased the risk of accidents, researchers found that the mellowing effects of cannabis made drivers more cautious and so less likely to drive dangerously. Although the cannabis affected reaction time in regular users, its effects appear to be substantially less dangerous than fatigue or drinking. Research by the Australian Drugs Foundation found that cannabis was the only drug tested that decreased the relative risk of having an accident. The findings will embarrass ministers at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) who commissioned the study after pressure from motoring organisations and anti-drug campaigners. Lord Whitty, the transport minister, will receive the report later this month. Last week police revealed details of new drug-driving tests to be administered by the roadside, which were received with some amusement. They require suspected drug- drivers to stand on one leg, lean back and touch their nose with their eyes closed, and to count to 30 silently with their eyes shut. This is apparently difficult for those on a drug trip. The advertising company McCann-Erickson has already prepared a television campaign using Pulp's song Sorted for Es and Whizz, the slogan "Never drive on drugs" and the pay-off line "then you come down". However, if the findings are less than frightening on the effects of marijuana, they may convince ministers to put more money into raising driver awareness of fatigue. Tiredness is now blamed for causing 10% of all fatal accidents, compared with 6% for alcohol and 3% for drugs. A low-key radio campaign will be launched tomorrow warning drivers to take breaks. The report's surprising conclusions will not sway organisations such as the RAC, which believes there is incontrovertible evidence that drug-driving is a growing menace. DETR statistics published in January showed a six-fold increase in the number of people found to be driving with drugs in their system after fatal road accidents. The figure jumped from 3% in 1989 to 18%. Dr Rob Tunbridge, the report's author, refused to reveal his findings before they were published but said: "If you were to ask me to rank them in order of priority, fatigue is the worst killer, followed by alcohol, and drugs follow way behind in third." Tunbridge admitted that the effect of drugs differed with the individual, the amount taken, the environment they were taken in and the point at which you tested reactions. Cocaine users are known to be alert drivers when they first take the drug, but then they have a tendency to fall asleep at the wheel. The particular problem with cannabis is that it stays in a person's system for up to 30 hours but its effects wear off within a few hours. E-mail: jonathon.carr-brown sunday-times.co.uk Published: August 13, 2000Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd. CannabisNews Cannabis Archives:http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #2 posted by chikh kacem amine on January 05, 2001 at 11:56:00 PT:
legalisation of cannabis
could you send me some information about the legalisation of cannabis
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by observer on August 15, 2000 at 12:29:58 PT
prediction: media blackout
Just like the Canadian court ruling that the medical cannabis ban was unconstitutional, I'd be very surprised to hear about this in the US controlled press. Not on message. Actually, it would not surprise me at all if the DETR itself refuses to release this report, or simply drops the parts that are not "on message" (i.e. 'forget' to mention facts that do not fit in with the pro-government, anti-personal-freedom propaganda themes). Wouldnlt be the first time. Remember the UN's Who report in 1998?Health officials in Geneva have suppressed the publication of a politically sensitive analysis that confirms what ageing hippies have known for decades: cannabis is safer than alcohol or tobacco. According to a document leaked to New Scientist, the analysis concludes not only that the amount of dope smoked worldwide does less harm to public health than drink and cigarettes, but that the same is likely to hold true even if people consumed dope on the same scale as these legal substances. . . What the WHO doesn't want you to know about cannabis 1998http://marijuana.newscientist.com/nsplus/insight/drugs/marijuana/news.html Does anyone recall the US propaganda "press" mentioning the Australian driving studies in 1998? (If you do not remember the US press mention these studies, it is because the US press never mentioned these studies. Like the recent Canadian court ruling, that story was spiked. Like this one will be. Not "on message.")Australia: Cannabis Crash Risk Less: Study (1998)http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n945/a08.htmlAustralia: Study Goes to Pot (1998)http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98/n947/a06.html :Drug-free drivers caused the accidents in 53.5 per cent of cases. Injured drivers with a blood-alcohol concentration of more than 0.05 per cent were culpable in nearly 90 per cent of accidents they were involved in. Drivers with cannabis in their blood were less likely to cause an accident, with a culpability rate of 50.6 per cent. Cannabis smokers are less likely to cause an accident than so-called "drug-free" drivers. So we can see that if people smoked cannabis instead of drinking (or abstaining!), then our highways would be safer (and mellower) places. Bet you won't hear Dan Rather talk about that; Peter Jennings shall also talk of other things, too. (They'll be talking about some warm fuzzy human-interest story about how good the government is, or a scare story predictably concluding that "the government" just "needs to do more" about X by passing new laws to divest citizens of traditional freedoms. Like outlawing caffeine in soda. For The Children. Now that's always "on message.") US Controlled Media Strategy:No need to confuse the sheep with facts like those contained in this leaked UK report; stay mum about the Canadian ruling; remain as silent as the US press was on the Austrailian driving report in 1998. If Dan Rather doen't mention it: it never happened. 
[ Post Comment ]

Post Comment


Name: Optional Password: 
E-Mail: 
Subject: 
Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message]
Link URL: 
Link Title: