cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/scientificarticles/p/1373091/cannabis-edibles-impair-driving-even-below-drug-driving-limits
Researchers analysed 40 regular edible cannabis users, testing their driving skills in a simulator before and after eating THC gummies. Higher doses led to poorer lane control, slower reactions and less consistent speed, while participants also reported feeling less able to drive. The participants’ blood tests came in below the legal thresholds for driving in Canada and New Zealand (5 ng/mL). The researchers say that edibles lead to lower peak blood THC concentrations than smoking, making it difficult to use blood THC levels alone to determine whether someone is actually impaired.
Yeah it’s weird. I like dope, I think driving high is probably largely significantly safer than alcohol and probably not significantly more risky than when sober. I still choose personally not to drive stoned, and I completely agree that we need to have SOME KIND of enforcement for road users. But criminalizing it itself seems like perhaps the wrong approach. Surely it should just be an aggravating factor if you are actually convicted of a driving offence, unless you are caught operating a vehicle while extremely impaired.
Whatever your stance though, if you can’t take studies at face value and accept that you might not like the findings, what are we even doing.