California Drivers & Smokers!

This is a news letter i got e-mailed for NORML earlier today! damn this is a bunch of BULL SHIT!

From NORML.ORG:

California Considers Dangerous 'Drugged Driving' Bill

Take Action Now!

Dear Friend,

NORML is writing you today to alert you of an unnecessary and potentially dangerous bill before the state Assembly.

Assembly Bill 2673, an act to amend Section 23152 of the California Vehicle Code, seeks to punish marijuana consumers including legally protected medicinal cannabis patients who operate a motor vehicle with any "measurable amount" of THC in their blood, even when the individual is, potentially, neither under the influence nor impaired to drive.

We all support the goal of keeping impaired drivers off the road, regardless of whether the driver is impaired from alcohol or other drugs. However, AB 2673 is poorly drafted, and seeks to create a new, driving-related offense that is divorced from driver impairment.

Assembly Bill 2673 seeks to make it a criminal offense in California for any person to operate a motor vehicle if any measurable level of THC, an active compound in marijuana, is present in their blood. Because THC may remain detectable at low levels in the blood of heavy cannabis users for up to 1-2 days after past use, and perhaps even longer if more sensitive testing technology is used, this legislation risks improperly criminalizing sober drivers as if they were intoxicated. Someone who smokes marijuana is impaired as a driver at most for a few hours; certainly not for one or two days. To treat all marijuana smokers as if they are impaired, even when the drug's effects have long worn off, is illogical and unfair.

In addition, California already has effect-based laws on the books targeting and prosecuting drivers who operate a motor vehicle "under the influence" of illicit drugs. Under Section 23152 of California's Vehicle Code, motorists face up to six months in jail if they drive "under the influence of a drug." By contrast, AB 2673 seeks to create a new crime of "drugged driving" that is divorced from impairment, and that would jail motorists for simply having consumed an illicit substance at some prior, unspecified date.

That is why NORML is asking you today to contact members of the Assembly Public Safety Committee, which will be holding hearings on this measure on Tuesday, April 4, and tell them that you oppose AB 2673. For your convenience, contact information for the Committee and a pre-written letter opposing AB 2673 is included below.

Sincerely,
Paul Armentano
Senior Policy Analyst
NORML | NORML Foundation

Can you beleave how fucked up this is! i tell people that california has the worst laws and politician is the country! if it wasnt for the great location, weater and scenery no one would live here! the laws are ridiculous! Heres a link http://boards.cannabis.com/showthrea...585#post692585 to the second half of this letter in the Activism section of our forums, including the information givin from NORML to help stop this!