As Marijuana Use Grows, Effect on Road Safety Remains a Blind Spot

[Zorro]

In Colorado, where America’s experiment with legal recreational marijuana began a little more than a decade ago, a team of federal scientists has been paying regular cannabis users to get stoned.

This unconventional line of research — which includes vans outfitted with hippie tapestries and a sleek car simulator — seeks to tackle what road safety experts regard as a serious blind spot as marijuana use grows nationally.

Law enforcement officials lack tools to detect cannabis-impaired driving as reliably as they can identify people who get behind the wheel drunk.

Only a few states routinely test the blood of drivers involved in serious accidents for marijuana, and as a result, little is known about how cannabis use is affecting road safety. Police officers generally need a warrant to compel a driver suspected of being impaired to provide a blood sample.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/01/us/marijuana-driving-impairment.html?unlocked_article_code=1.l04.dazX.aOI8ng10jqCb&smid=url-share

[Historic NY]

1. Watched a guy yesterday

pull into a Stewarts Mart to get air in a tire. He let his female companion fiddle with the air machine while he lit up a joint. They had a small child.

[Unladen Swallow]

2. "Driving while impaired" can mean anything

...alcohol, marijuana, Xanax, pain killers. The states that leave this purposefully vague can charge and prosecute based on the officers' perceptions and observations. They just need to develop PC and then prove it to the satisfaction of a prosecutor. I've seen dozens of accidents caused my folks driving while drunk, high on MJ, high on opioids, etc. Any significant change in one's perception or reflexes should come with a public-health-minded philosophy of limiting moving 4000lb objects around at high speed.