No more stoned driving -- Colorado is passing THC limits for DUI

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Originally Posted by Dorje113

The problem is, it's a personal reaction. Some people with brain chemistry issues like bipolar II and ADD are probably better off driving high. When I'm not high, I'm likely to drive faster and more aggressively.

There is also the issue that it has not been proven that mj impairs to the extent the law needs to be involved, in fact I posted information proving the opposite.

I believe cell phones are far more dangerous then mj on the road.

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this is spot on. I am a tame, speed limit driving good citizen on weed. I'm a left-lane driving lead foot grump otherwise.

ADD for sure. Cell phones are certainly a much bigger safety issue.

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Originally Posted by Dorje113

I believe cell phones are far more dangerous then mj on the road.

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..duh? Which is why their use is restricted in cars! Exactly the same principle applies.

(I am receptive to the argument that, like the penalties for texting, the penalty for driving high should be lower than, say, the penalty incurred for a DUI with bodily injury.)

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Originally Posted by Dorje113

I believe cell phones are far more dangerous then mj on the road.

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I agree, also dangerous while driving: eating!
I've seen and I'm guilty of near accidents due to eating.

Texting is bad too - yes we have a law in CO that bans it, but unfortunately it's had a reverse effect. Accident rates due to texting has increased - the theory is people are still texting but are going to great lengths to hide it, taking their eyes off the road even longer than before.

Love this BBC Stoned Driving YouTube video
YouTube - Stoned Driving Experiment.flv

This is already happening in CA. A friend was drinking and smoking with some growers in the hills. One of the guys does not drink and was just smoking weed. He leaves the group and heads down to civilization. He gets off the side roads and gets pulled over on the state highway. The cops say they think he has been drinking so he says he has not but that they can go ahead and test him. They do their field breathalizer test and he registers zero. They say that he still looks loaded to them and they are going to perform an additional test. They come back and say that he has tested positive for marijuana and they arrest him for driving under the influence of narcotics.

I have not heard anything about what happened after that and have not heard of any other person getting busted for being under the influence of marijuana. So this is second hand information but from a very trusted friend.

Since this happened to this other person I have been stopped by profiling in Santa Rosa. We had weed in back of the truck and some in the cab for smoking. The cop followed us for several miles after profiling us (dirty off road pick up with large load under cheap tarp) then pulled us over. He said we were speeding though we were the slowest car on the road in the slow lane at the time. He also said he smelled pot. He had a dog in the car and spoke with my daughter who was driving first. She figured the dog smelled the weed so she told the cop we had 1/8 in the cab. He asked if he could search the back and she said yes and started to open the tailgate but the cop said that was OK. He asked if we had 215 licenses and if we could provide them. She said she had one and that I had one and could produce them. So the cop has her tell me to get out of the truck while she gets in. I tell the cop that we have 1/8 too. He asks if he can search the back and I start to untie the tarp. He then says thats OK. We are too willing to let him search and he believes that we don't have weed there (though we had about a pound) and that we can go.

He does not give us a ticket. He does not search the cab even though we told him we have 1/8 there (really about 3/4 oz). We just go.

He had to know we were high but did not perform any sobriety or drug tests. I am not sure how it will work but I am hoping field pot tests will not ecome the norm here.

Anyone heard of anyone in CA getting field tested for pot.

We can argue all day about whether it's a bad idea for people to drive high. I never said it wasn't.

The point is that you can't really determine impairment by testing alkaloid levels or THC levels in the blood. IT IS NOT A RELIABLE INDICATOR!!!

So, yeah it may be a good idea to outlaw stoned driving, but there is no practical way to get a quantitative idea of how stoned someone is by looking at their blood alkaloid levels.

As was stated a few times already in this thread you could smoke on Monday and still have arrestable alkaloid levels on Wednesday. That is the point of this thread!!

I want to know what advocates of this law think about that!!!

A field sobriety test is really the only fair and rational way to do it without jeopardizing the rights of a all medical users!

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Originally Posted by lampost

A field sobriety test is really the only fair and rational way to do it without jeopardizing the rights of a all medical users!

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This is what we have in my country, I have seen one performed. It is similar to an alcohol sobriety test, testing co-ordination, the ability of the eyes to focus etc..

I'm not an advocate of the law, but I'll certainly give my opinion: people who smoke several times a day shouldn't drive. I don't have much experience with drug testing and am not able to evaluate different methods of testing or to comment on specific blood levels. Whatever standard they choose, I will likely abide by it because I do not wish to get a DUI.

I hope a field sobriety test is too difficult to nail down and never gets perfected. I would never pass a test even when I wake up in the morning.

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Originally Posted by rudy2010

I hope a field sobriety test is too difficult to nail down and never gets perfected. I would never pass a test even when I wake up in the morning.

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I had to explain to a cop that I couldn't recite the alphabet backwards. Sober, drunk, high - it doesn't matter. I can provide a lively overview of tripartite government, a thoughtful analysis of the causes of the Civil War, a succinct but humorous recap of the election of 1800. Ask me high school algebra, or to diagram a sentence, or about the relative merits of the wildcat and the wishbone. Unfortunately, sequences of letters and numbers have always been beyond me.

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Originally Posted by HighPopalorum

..duh? Which is why their use is restricted in cars! Exactly the same principle applies.

(I am receptive to the argument that, like the penalties for texting, the penalty for driving high should be lower than, say, the penalty incurred for a DUI with bodily injury.)

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I've seen on multiple occasions where someone is driving like a massive retard right in front of a cop while yapping away on their cellphone, just to watch the cop brush it off. Cops in this state are great with selective law enforcement!!

Also it's amusing how it's acceptable to be all jacked up on prescription drugs and drive, yet now pot is just as dangerous as alcohol.... that is complete and utter horse shit.