DdC

MARIJUANA DOES NOT CAUSE RECKLESS DRIVING

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and certain Wisconsin legislators have launched a new crusade against "drugged driving," with a heavy emphasis on marijuana. This crusade is largely based on scientific misinformation, and it could lead to the enactment of bad laws.

ONDCP has several slick television commercials on the subject. One shows dramatic auto accidents and two crash test dummies passing a joint while a serious voice says, "In a recent study, one in three reckless drivers tested positive for marijuana." Note the careful phrasing. The idea is to make viewers think that marijuana caused the reckless driving, without really saying that it did.

Why would ONDCP be so coy? The answer lies in the actual data regarding marijuana's effects on driving,

I study the effects of drugs and teach classes in the science of illicit substances, so I know this field. The plain fact is that marijuana does not cause reckless driving. Large studies of accidents show that drivers who test positive for marijuana (and ONLY marijuana -- i.e., people who haven't also been drinking or taking other intoxicating drugs) cause fewer crashes than people who haven't had any drugs at all.

That's right, people "high" on marijuana cause fewer crashes than those who are completely sober. The findings seemed impossible to explain. It was a puzzle that made no sense.

A bright and talented researcher in the Netherlands named Robbe recently solved that puzzle. He got experienced marijuana users stoned and had them drive around the streets of Holland. But these guys were no dummies. They drove slower, increased the distance between their cars and the cars in front of them, and never tried to pass other cars. Folks who smoked a placebo (a non-intoxicating substance made to look and smell like marijuana) drove as they usually did. Alcohol, alone or in combination with marijuana, wrecked driving completely.

Robbe's results helped explain the accident studies. People who used marijuana and only marijuana were compensating for the drug's effects by driving more carefully. Nobody should drive high, but we can all take a lesson from these people who did: slow down, leave space between your car and the next, and don't try to pass. Unlike alcohol, which makes people behave recklessly, marijuana users tend to be aware that they are impaired and compensate with some success.

But what about the ONDCP's claim that one in three reckless drivers tested positive for marijuana?

It's not quite a lie, but it's deliberately misleading. The Drug Czar's no dummy. He wants to scare people, and he knows the complete facts won't do it. Instead he throws out scary but incomplete and misleading statistics --- and hopes people won't question them. Yes, one in three reckless drivers tested positive for marijuana in a urine screen, but we don't know how many of them had alcohol, antihistamines, cocaine, or any number of other drugs in their systems.

Legislators need to ask for the complete facts behind the scare stories before they start passing new laws based on misinformation.

There are cheaper, easier ways to get impaired drivers off the road. Roadside sobriety tests are reliable, inexpensive, and valid indicators of impaired driving. Law-enforcement officers can learn to administer these tests quickly and easily. Unlike expensive blood tests, which can only identify a few drugs, roadside sobriety tests can detect any kind of drug impairment that might hurt driving. People who've had too many antihistamines can't drive well. Roadside sobriety tests would keep them off the road. A blood test would let them drive on by.

Don't be a dummy. Insist on roadside sobriety tests instead of expensive, misleading blood tests.

Subject: 006 Mitch Earleywine: Marijuana Does Not Cause Reckless Driving
From: "D. Paul Stanford" stanford@crrh.org
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 Pubdate: Fri, 26 Sep 2003
Author: Mitch Earleywine, Ph.D.
Source: DrugSense Weekly
Note: Mitch Earleywine, Ph.D., is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Southern California and author of "Understanding Marijuana" (Oxford University Press, 2002).

Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake
____________________ ____________________ _
"Simulated driving scores for subjects experiencing a normal social "high" and the same subjects under control conditions are not significantly different. However, there are significantly more errors for alcohol intoxicated than for control subjects"
Crancer Study, Washington Department of Motor Vehicles

"THC's adverse effects on driving performance appear relatively small"
U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(DOT HS 808 078), Final Report, November 1993

Australia: No Proof Cannabis Put Drivers At Risk (2001)
UK: Cannabis May Make You A Safer Driver (2000)
University Of Toronto: Study Shows Marijuana Not A Factor In Driving Accidents (1999)
Australia: Cannabis Crash Risk Less: Study (1998)
Australia: Study Goes to Pot (1998)

What No One Wants to Know About Marijuana linx by Dr. Andrew Weil

"a-motivation [is] a cause of heavy marijuana smoking rather than the reverse"
Dr. Andrew Weil (Rubin & Comitas Ganja in Jamaica, 1975)

What No One Wants to Know About Marijuana
From The Natural Mind by Dr. Andrew Weil
(last half of chapter four pg. 86-97)

PREJUDICE: MARIJUANA AND JIM CROW LAWS



Click title for full story

Marijuana Can Control Epilepsy, VCU Study Finds
Source: Richmond.com September 30, 2003
Ingredients in marijuana and the cannabinoid receptor protein, which is produced naturally in the body to regulate the central nervous system and other bodily functions, play a critical role in controlling spontaneous seizures in epilepsy, according to a new study by Virginia Commonwealth University researchers. The study, the first to look at marijuana and the brain's cannabinoid system in live animals with spontaneous, recurrent seizures, suggests new avenues that researchers can explore in their search for more-effective drugs to treat epileptic patients who don't respond to today's anticonvulsant medications or surgery.

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Webster's Dictionary 1952
Bhang-(bang). n [Hind.from Sans.. bhanga,hemp]
An Indian variety of the common hemp, the resin of which is highly narcotic and intoxicant, and a popular Oriental stimulant, otherwise called hashish. Also employed in medicine , for its anodyne, hyponotic, and anti-spasmodic qualities ; also spelled bang, beng.

Ganja/hemp lnfolinx
Cannabis Shrinks Tumors: Government Knew in 74
The Elkhorn Manafesto

DdC

His Primary Agenda: Marijuana for The Ill By Daniel Barrick, Monitor Staff
Source: Concord Monitor September 30, 2003
Like the 300 other people gathered at New England College on Friday night, Aaron Houston wanted to hear a few words from Wesley Clark. But Houston wasn't interested in Clark's plans for health care, foreign policy or the economy. He didn't care what the candidate had to say about Social Security or education. Houston had just one thing on his mind: marijuana. Houston is campaign coordinator for Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana, an advocacy group that wants to hear every presidential candidate's stance on the drug's use by terminally ill patients.

I Have Seen The Future, And It Is Smoky By Michael Gregory, Staff Writer
Source: Vanguard September 30, 2003
First of all, let me start this column by urging readers that if they have any marijuana in their possession, THIS IS AN ILLEGAL SUBSTANCE! Please bring all of the substance to the offices of The Vanguard immediately. We will handle it from there. As the debate for the legalization of marijuana continues, we here at The Vanguard have been studying the topic quite intensely in recent weeks to keep you, the reader, informed. Here are some interesting facts regarding the legalization of the substance (which you better hurry up and bring in, because they're watching you!).



Legalize It! By Kenneth Norris, Staff Writer
Source: Vanguard September 30, 2003
The question of marijuana legalization raises many issues that affect each of us in some way. My purpose herein is to explore some of the moral, cultural, legal and economic issues related to marijuana legalization. Most Americans agree that drug abuse is immoral because it distorts perception, impairs judgment and can jeopardize one's health. As a Christian, I agree that drug abuse is wrong and stupid and sets a bad example. However, these criticisms apply equally to alcoholism, which shares the exact same faults while remaining legal. Alcohol, tobacco and obesity each kill tens of thousands of people, yet there is not a single documented case of a marijuana overdose.



Pot Debate is Pointless, Boring and Unending By Jeff Poor, Staff Writer
Source: Vanguard September 30, 2003
One is the editor-in-chief of a racy pro-marijuana magazine and the other is a retired DEA agent. Not since that 1968 hit The Odd Couple, starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, has there been two more different people! It is Snoop Dogg meets McGruff the Crime Dog - it is Heads vs. Feds featuring Steven Hager of High Times Magazine and Robert Stutman, the founder of Employee Information Services, Inc.-the nation's largest management firm specializing in substance-abuse for employees-and they are both coming to a college campus near you!



False Drug Information Harms Kids By Marsha Rosenbaum, Research Scientist
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer September 30, 2003
With little fanfare, highly touted researchers from Johns Hopkins University recently made a stunning announcement. Data from their experiments with the now infamous drug Ecstasy, published a year ago in Science, turned out to be fatally flawed. It seems the vials had been mislabeled and the drug administered to -- and that killed 20 percent of -- the study's laboratory monkeys and baboons was not Ecstasy but a completely different substance.

Justice Ministers Debate Pot Law By Michelle Macafee, Canadian Press
Source: Canadian Press September 30, 2003
La Malbaie, Que. -- Federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon met with his provincial counterparts on Tuesday and prepared to square off with them over Ottawa's plans to decriminalize marijuana. Cauchon, who put the item on the agenda for the two-day meeting, faces opposition from provincial ministers who want to give other issues greater priority. Cauchon said he's sticking to his plan to have the bill passed before Prime Minister Jean Chretien retires.



Drugs, Lies, and Half-Truths By Elizabeth Armstrong, CSM Staff Writer
Source: Christian Science Monitor September 30, 2003
Most of what kids know about drugs they don't pick up in a classroom. They get their information from billboards on the sides of highways; from movies, magazines, and the Internet; from parents who drink at the dinner table; or from friends who experiment when nobody's home. They get information about drugs - legal and otherwise - from so many sources, and today, it seems, the messages they are picking up may be more muddled than ever before.



Lecture on Legalizing Medical Marijuana By Alyson Zillmann, Collegian Correspondent
Source: Daily Collegian September 29, 2003
Studies have shown that patients with incurable pain have substantially benefited from the use of cannabis while avoiding the side effects of many FDA-approved drugs, Dr. Ethan Russo said in his lecture on medical marijuana last night. Russo, who practiced clinical neurology with a specialty in child neurology, migraines and chronic pain in Minnesota for 20 years, gave a medical history of cannabis to a crowd of about 60 at Stockbridge Hall.

Addiction: A Brain Ailment, Not a Moral Lapse By Jane E. Brody
Source: New York Times September 29, 2003
For all that has been written and spoken about addiction as a medical disease, most people, including most physicians, understand little about what draws people to drugs and keeps them hooked, often despite severe consequences and repeated attempts to quit. A better understanding of the pull and tug of addiction can help those who are hooked and those who want the monkey off their backs for good. The savings in life-years, quality of life and lost income can be huge, not to mention the costs of drug-instigated crime and medical care.



Legalizing medical marijuana Students, activists and supporters gather for lecture...j
September 30, 2003 Massachusetts Daily Collegian



Mayor Calls for Lethal Injection for Drug Users
September 30, 2003
Controversial Port Lincoln Mayor Peter Davis has called for drug addicts to be given a lethal injection to cut rising illicit drug use on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula. Police statistics show the rate of amphetamine and marijuana use among teenagers in the region is increasing alarmingly. Cr Davis says the use of intravenous drugs has also risen since the introduction of a local needle exchange program. He says there should be less tolerance to both drug users and traffickers. "I don't have a problem with the free needle exchange but the drug addict who wants to exchange a needle should be given a lethal injection," he said. "You want the trip of your life, in fact the last trip of your life? Not a problem, come on in and we'll deal with you."

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men. Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta

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kameelyun

Also, marijuana stays in the body for up to 30 days; so the 1-in-3 people Walters cites could have used the marijuana 2 weeks prior to the accident.

__________________
"The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off." - Gloria Steinem

jamf

Yeah the whole thing is a fucking joke. While theyre at it they should measure statistics of caffiene and traffic accidents. Im sure that more than 50% will have caffiene in their system since its so prevelant in american society. Maybe the caffiene is the real cause of all the fatal wrecks.