weed drive
CategoriesAnalysis/Opinion, Guides, Science by

Accidents and the Dangers of Driving on Weed

Most people have been taught that alcohol increases the risk of accidents.

Smoking and driving can get you a DUI for an accident even in states where cannabis is legal. Current state laws for marijuana have focused on regulating it like alcohol while on the road. This is especially true when it comes to consuming and driving. Yet evidence of marijuana’s culpability in on-road accidents is difficult to prove.
Many states have reduced penalties for cannabis related crimes over the last few years. Yet as states continue to loosen regulations on marijuana safety, law enforcement is struggling to figure out how to establish a legal limit for drivers. They have focused on setting a blood-content test just like the .08 limit for alcohol.
A new study shows the challenges in accurately testing drivers.
One of the most difficult parts of testing is developing a threshold for what’s considered too high to drive. The conductors of the study concluded that “THC concentrations drop rapidly during the time required to collect a blood specimen in the U.S., generally within two to four hours.”
The low amount of time cannabis remains active for oral tests using the drivers’ saliva make it harder to fail than traditional tests. Saliva tests can be done roadside without a long wait but researchers found oral tests don’t provide “a precise measure of the level of impairment.”
Politicians are hesitant to implement concentration-based cannabis-driving legislation because it might ” unfairly target individuals not acutely intoxicated, because residual THC can be detected in blood for up to a month of sustained abstinence in chronic frequent smokers.” Depending on the direction that the new Attorney General Jeff Sessions takes the Justice Department over the coming years, detecting residual cannabinoids may be more important than registering intoxication.

Smoking weed is not safe while driving.

Cannabis intoxication has been shown to mildly impair a drivers psychomotor skills. It doesn’t appear to be severe or long lasting though. In driving simulator tests, this impairment was typically manifested by decreasing driving speed and needing more time to respond to emergency situations.
Yet this impairment does not appear to play a significant role in on-road traffic accidents. A review of seven different studies involving 7,934 drivers showed in 2002, “Crash culpability studies have failed to demonstrate that drivers with cannabinoids in the blood are significantly more likely than drug-free drivers to be culpable in road crashes.” And it’s not like people haven’t tried to prove a link either.
A Massive body of research exists that explores the impact of marijuana on psychomotor skills and actual driving performance. Researchers have done driving simulator studies, on-road performance studies, crash culpability studies, and reviews of the existing evidence. To date, the result of this research has shown how mildly cannabis affects driving abilities but that won’t stop the cops from hauling you off for having it in your system if you get in an accident.

Bad accidents

Marijuana has a measurable yet relatively mild effect on psychomotor skills.

Yet it does not appear to play a significant role in vehicle crashes, particularly when compared to alcohol. Researchers conducting a study for the National Institute on Drug Abuse said alcohol “significantly increased lane departures/minimum and maximum lateral acceleration”. Cannabis did not have the same correlation between consumption and decreased performance.

Researchers for the Highway Traffic Safety Administration funded study concluded Cannabis-influenced drivers are better able to measure their intoxication “may attempt to drive more cautiously to compensate for impairing effects, whereas alcohol-influenced drivers often underestimate their impairment and take more risk.”

People keep studying the link between cannabis, alcohol and car accidents.

The prevalence of both alcohol and cannabis use and the extreme morbidity associated with car crashes has lead to repeated research on the link between the two. According to another study, “drunk drivers are involved in 25% of motor vehicle fatalities, and many accidents involve drivers who test positive for cannabis.”
The researchers say that while both alcohol and cannabis impair performance in a “dose-related fashion” the “effects of cannabis vary more between individuals than they do with alcohol because of tolerance, differences in smoking technique, and different absorptions of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana.”
The effects of a cannabis “high” vary according to dose but are more pronounced with highly automatic driving functions than with more complex tasks.” Basically making it easier to focus on a plan than instinctively react to something. With alcohol the opposite pattern of impairment is produced and people get distracted easier.

Cannabis and alcohol have a synergistic effect.

Because of an increased awareness that they are impaired, “marijuana smokers tend to compensate more effectively while driving than drunks” by utilizing a variety of strategies. Mixing marijuana with alcohol removes the ability to use such strategies as the two substances increase the potency of the other when mixed.
Cannabis and alcohol work on many of the same levels in the brain and both inherently affect chemical production in the brain. Mixing cannabis and booze will amplify the effects of both and can lead to serious repercussions. While studies have been inconclusive regarding whether cannabis use causes an increased risk of accidents; in contrast, unanimity exists that alcohol use increases the risk of crashes.
In addition, the risk from driving under the influence of alcohol and cannabis together is higher than the risk of driving under the influence of either alone. One study even recommends that patients who smoke cannabis wait several hours before driving, and avoid combining the two drugs.

Even schools have studied how dangerous driving while high is.

The first study to analyze the effects of cannabis on driving was conducted by Researchers at the University of Iowa’s National Advanced Driving Simulator, sponsored by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Institute of Drug Abuse, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
The researchers found that cannabis use caused almost no impairment. The impairment that it did cause was similar to the change observed while under the influence of a legal alcohol limit. They basically couldn’t get cannabis to impair driving as much as one beer.
They tested impairment mainly with a simulator. “Once in the simulator—a 1996 Malibu sedan mounted in a 24-feet diameter dome—the drivers were assessed on weaving within the lane, how often the car left the lane, and the speed of the weaving. Drivers with only alcohol in their systems showed impairment in all three areas while those strictly under the influence of vaporized cannabis only demonstrated problems weaving within the lane.”

More research is needed to find the right limits.

All these study’s findings show that alcohol is a much more dangerous drug than cannabis yet regulated in a more relaxed manner. While driving while under the influence of cannabis can still get you locked up, it is unclear how dangerous it is. More research is needed to show exactly how much cannabis should be legally allowable but for the time being, driving after consuming any cannabis remains illegal.
Until the whole world switches over to autonomous vehicles and we don’t have to worry about driver error any more, people are still going to get into accidents (sober or not). It is best not to contribute to the problem and simply don’t drive while high. You never know when you might need to instinctually react to something in your lane. Thanks for reading.

dea
CategoriesAnalysis/Opinion, Culture, Marijuana Legalization, Marijuana News, Medical, Science by

DEA: Marijuana is Not a Gateway Drug

Marijuana has been called a gateway drug for over 80 years.

The battle lines were drawn long before anyone currently driving the gateway debate had assumed power. Political figures have demonized cannabis and those who consume it for almost a century and worked to create a massive industrial prison complex designed to harvest people. Low income and minority people have borne the brunt of the assault.
Americans have been tricked into accepting the most ridiculous claims about cannabis and a whole generation of people have grown up behind bars because of it. Politicians have used slippery speech to sway public opinion and outright changed the law in order to suite their desires for decades. When Reagan and Clinton enacted laws that put more people in jail than the Romans had slaves.
Larry Anslinger didn’t care about how many would suffer without the healing properties of cannabis, he was motivated by an zealous hatred for the plant to create the movie Reefer Madness. President Nixon was motivated by a religious desire to punish people regardless of what his own investigators proved. Reagan had no mercy for people caught in the crossfire when he enacted draconian mandatory punishments for minor drug infractions.gateway

We stand at the dawn of a new era of American drug policy.

Despite an abundance of empirical evidence about the medical benefit of cannabis from reputable medical professionals from the Shafer Commission to Sanjay Gupta, it remains a schedule 1 controlled substance. This classifies weed as having “no medical benefits” and creates massive hurdles for scientists and doctors looking to research cannabis. It also puts it in the same medical category as heroin.
With the rise of Trump and the appointment of Jeff Sessions to Attorney General, the entire industry is bracing for another impact. Part of the collective wince comes from the evasive actions of top officials on the matter through election season. Instead of giving clear messages about how they plan to pursue policy, government officials are as vague as possible about how they plan to pursue policy.
This evasive attitude has made many wary of the how the Trump Administration plans to deal with cannabis. Statements in the past by Jeff Sessions like “Good people don’t smoke marijuana.” and his past issues of discriminatory prosecution during the Civil Rights movement has helped to stir up old debates.

The debate surrounding legalizing marijuana has resurrected the Gateway Theory.

This theory presumes that experimenting with marijuana inevitably results in the use of harder drugs like cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Until recently, the DEA website contained dozens of lies and inaccuracies and it begrudgingly changed them only after being threatened with legal action.
Many people don’t know that it is illegal for federal agencies to spread incorrect information. Yet when it comes to cannabis, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been doing it for years. In less than a month, a petition from Change.org calling on the DEA by a to stop lying about medical cannabis received 85,000+ signatures.
The petition was started by Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a nonprofit organization working to increase access to medical cannabis. “The DEA has actually admitted that the theories that cannabis use leads to harder drugs (gateway theory), long-term brain damage, psychosis, and other alleged harms, are not based in scientific fact, and yet they keep distributing this false information”, says ASA. “[W]e have found 25 instances of these false claims on their website.”

The petition for updated information was direct and their arguments were air-tight.

The group argued that the document previously known as “The Dangers and Consequences of Marijuana Abuse,” had a few inaccurate claims about cannabis.  They showed how the page was in violation of the Information Quality Act which requires that administrative agencies provide accurate information to the public. The DEA also had to respond to requests for correction of information within 60 days.
A separate petition was filed by the Department of Justice demanding that the DEA immediately update misinformation about cannabis. While neither the DEA nor the DOJ responded to ASA’s request, the document which contained the majority of the inaccurate statements was removed from their website.
But the governement is made up of more people than ever before. There is a lot of room for competing ideologies and goals to play out. A key observation of the Shafer Commission is that many of the risks of drug use are the result of drug policy/enforcement rather than from the drugs themselves.

The “gateway drug” stigma refuses to die.

A prime example of how this stigma presents itself is New York governor Andrew Cuomo. He wants to keep cannabis illegal in New York State because it “leads to other drugs and there’s a lot of truth to proof that that’s true.” He holds this view despite the results of a major study on medical marijuana conducted by the venerable Institute of Medicine, which included an examination of marijuana’s potential to lead to abusing other drugs.
The study found that “There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs.” Even the DEA has gone on record to say “Little evidence supports the hypothesis that initiation of marijuana use leads to an abuse disorder with other illicit substances,” while refusing to reschedule cannabis in August of 2016.
The continuing stigma prevents meaningful reform of marijuana laws by perpetuating harmful misinformation.  A Rasmussen poll found that a large percentage of Americans believe the gateway argument. Nearly half of voters (46%) believed marijuana use leads to harder drugs. Thirty-seven percent (37%) did not see marijuana as a “gateway” drug.

Patterns in progression of drug use are strikingly regular.

Because it is the most widely used illicit drug, marijuana is predictably the first illicit drug most people come across. Not surprisingly, most users of other illicit drugs used marijuana before the harder stuff. In fact, most adult users begin with alcohol and nicotine long before moving on to cannabis and other illicit drugs.
In 2006, the University of Pittsburgh released a thorough study which researchers spent 12 years putting together. They tracked a group of subjects from adolescence into adulthood and documented the initiation and progression of their drug use. The researchers reported that the gateway theory was not only wrong, but also detrimental to properly understanding and addressing drug abuse.
The myth of the Gateway effect needs to be put to rest once and for all. The more research that is conducted the clearer it becomes that cannabis use does not lead to abuse of other drugs. Some promising research has also shown that cannabis can actually help people kick the other stuff like heroine. As more and more states legalize medical and recreational marijuana, it is more important than ever to put the gateway myth to rest. Thanks for reading.
 

34
CategoriesMarijuana Legalization, Marijuana News by

5 Medical Marijuana Nurseries Approved in Florida

Florida has just approved five new medical marijuana nurseries.
The Florida Department of Health just released the names of five nurseries authorized to grow cannabis for use in cannabis-based medicines. The announcement is a big step forward for the medical cannabis program, which was approved by lawmakers last year.
Under the new law, those with cancer, epilepsy and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who receive a recommendation from a physician are authorized to purchase, possess and consume low-THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), high-CBD (cannabidiol) cannabis medicines, such as pills, oils and tinctures.
The approved medical marijuana nurseries are Chestnut Tree Farm in Alachua, Costa Farms of Goulds, Hackney Nursery in Greensboro,  Knox Nursery in Winter Garden and Alpha Foliage in Homestead. Each will cover a particular region of the state and supply medicine to cannabis dispensaries that are expected to open sometime next year.
As this new law moves forward, activists are attempting to once again put a much broader medical cannabis legalization initiative to a vote of the people. United for Care, whose 2014 medical cannabis initiative failed at the ballot despite garnering 58% of the vote (it needed 60% to pass given it was a constitutional amendment), has already collected over half a million signatures (with a goal of a million) in an effort to put a similar — though slightly reworded — initiative on next year’s general election ballot.
According to polling released last month, 87% of voters in Florida support legalizing medical cannabis.

texas
CategoriesMarijuana News by

First Time Cannabis Possession Decriminalized In Texas' Most Populous County

First time cannabis possession will soon be decriminalized in Harris County, the most populous county in Texas, and the third most populous county in the entire United States.
Beginning on January 1st, those in the county caught in possession of up to two ounces of cannabis for the first time will no longer be arrested and charged with a misdemeanor that could land them in prison for up to 6 months. Instead, they’ll be given a citation and mandated to attend a diversion program.
Which is annoying, but much better than prison.
The new policy is called the First Chance Intervention Program. Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson is moving forth with the change despite widespread criticism from his colleagues in law enforcement.
“If [a diversion program is] offered at the pre-arrest stage, it frees up space in jail,” says Anderson. “It minimizes the administrative burdens that officers face when they file charges; it reduces the cost for prosecution and court proceedings; and of course it gives the offender an opportunity to have a completely clean record.”
The diversion program itself is nothing new — it’s been around long before this new policy. And data from the district attorney’s office shows that more than 90 percent of those who took advantage of the program did not re-offend, a much higher rate than found in those who didn’t attend the program.
Anderson says that only the first offense will be decriminalized under the new policy, but may change in the near future.
“After I saw these [stats], I said, hey, let’s look at what the recidivism rate would be for a second offender or a third offender,” Anderson said. “So we’re going to look at that.”
Harris County includes Texas’ most populous city, Houston. Overall, Harris County has a population of over 4 million, according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau report.
jeff mizanskey family1
CategoriesMarijuana News by

UPDATE: Jeff Mizanskey Going Home!

 
After more than 20 years behind bars, Jeff Mizanskey is finally going home.
The 62 year old grandfather has been in prison since 1993, when he was arrested at the scene of a pot deal gone bad. He was neither the seller nor the buyer, just “guilty by association.” But because of prior convictions, and Missouri’s “3 strikes you’re out” policy toward drug offenders, Mizanskey was sentenced to life without parole.
In 2011, the “3 strikes” rule was repealed. I guess lawmakers finally came to their senses, and realized what they had done was cruel and inhumane. Too bad for Jeff, that revision was not retroactive — meaning that it didn’t apply to those who had already been convicted and sentenced.
His story went mainstream in 2013, and pro-cannabis activists from across the nation joined in the #freejeffmizanskey campaign. An online petition calling for clemency from Missouri governor Jay Nixon gathered nearly 400,000 signatures. The governor responded by commuting Jeff’s sentence back in May, making him eligible for parole. He went before the parole board on August 7th.
His parole was granted.
He’s scheduled to be released on September 1st. Jeff is going home to his family. Finally.
Obviously, this is a momentous occasion for the Mizanskeys and their supporters, and for the whole cannabis movement. And we should celebrate, of course! But as we rejoice for Jeff and his family, and bask in the glow of a major victory, let’s not lose sight of the big picture…
There are still more than 2 million people behind bars in America — the largest prison population on the planet. And 17% of people in state run prisons are incarcerated for drug offenses; in federal prisons, nearly half (48%). There are still thousands of people serving life sentences for non-violent drug offenses, including more than a dozen who, just like Jeff, are serving life sentences for pot.
There were more than 1.5 million drug-related arrests in 2012, and 42% of them were for possession of marijuana.
That means that more than 650,000 people were handcuffed and caged just for getting high. Our nation’s correctional facilities are overcrowded and underfunded — or being run for profit by private corporations with government contracts… which is so tragically flawed it ought to be a crime.
And yet every year, thousands more are locked up for possession of a plant. A medicine.
That’s not even counting the number of people who get fired from their jobs, or lose custody of their children, because of a failed drug test. It is no exaggeration to say that millions of people have suffered because of pot prohibition, and the criminalization of one of Nature’s most powerful herbal remedies.
When will we finally stand up and say enough is enough?
As we celebrate Jeff Mizanskey’s release, and the happy ending (at last!) to his story, let’s also remember the lessons there are to be learned, and the work there is still left to do.

1. We must continue to campaign for retroactive decriminalization, so that all those currently serving time for pot possession can have their sentences overturned, and be sent home.

2. In the states where weed is made legal, recreationally or medicinally, we need laws on the books to protect cannabis users from being fired over drug test results.

3. Ultimately, we must not stop until we see reform of federal drug laws, and a re-classification of marijuana from a Schedule 1 narcotic to a legal and regulated substance. Because no one should be in jail over a plant.

Congratulations to Jeff and his family! We wish you nothing but the best. But let’s remember that the struggle isn’t over. We’ve got to continue to be involved, and let our voices be heard in the media, through petitions, and most importantly through the ballot box.
Let’s keep on fighting the good fight until all the victims of the Drug War are sent home, and all people are free to use cannabis as Mother Nature intended.
 

pot 13
CategoriesMarijuana News by

Missouri Man Serving Life Sentence For Pot Might Be Paroled

 
On March 11th, the House Corrections Committee voted 11-1 to forward Missouri HB 978, a bill that would grant parole to inmates serving life sentences for non-violent marijuana offences. The bill was introduced in response to extensive campaigning on behalf of Jeff Mizanskey, a 61 year old grandfather who has spent more than 20 years behind bars for possession of marijuana.
Mizanskey was arrested in Sedalia MO in 1993, for being present during a drug deal gone wrong. Atilano Quintana, a known drug dealer being investigated by U.S. Customs, was picking up a hundred pounds of pot from New Mexico, and he brought Jeff along as his driver. His sources – Jose Reyes and Jorge Ibaudo – were to meet him at a local motel with the goods, but they were pulled over by highway patrol on the way into town. Cops found the drugs, and they arranged a set up to catch the buyer, Quintana, in the act. Mizanskey was just a “bonus,” in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The delivery guys were rewarded for their cooperation: Reyes served a year in county jail, Ibaudo was released without charges. Quintana, the intended buyer, and known drug dealer, served ten years.
Mizanskey was sentenced to life in prison, without possibility of parole.
Jeff is a victim of the “prior and persistent offenders” statute, which set a three-strikes-you’re-out policy for Missouri drug offenders. Only that statute was found to be cruel and ineffective, and has since been repealed (effective 1/1/2017). But the revision isn’t retroactive, and Mizanskey is still behind bars, and out of appeals. His only chance at going home to his family is for the governor to grant him clemency, or for Missouri lawmakers to pass HB 978.
If you’d like to support the #freejeffmizanksey movement, add your signature to the petition here.