From the Obama Administration's recently released National Drug Control Strategy (hat tip to NORML reader Glen):
Encourage States To Adopt Per Se Drug Impairment Laws [ONDCP]State laws regarding impaired driving are varied, but most State codes do not contain a separate offense for driving under the influence of drugs (DUID). Therefore, few drivers are identified, prosecuted, or convicted for DUID. Law enforcement personnel usually cite individuals with the easier to prove driving while intoxicated (DWI) alcohol charges. Unclear laws provide vague signals both to drivers and to law enforcement, thereby minimizing the possible preventive benefit of DUID statutes. Fifteen states have passed laws clarifying that the presence of any illegal drug in a driver's body is per se evidence of impaired driving. ONDCP will work to expand the use of this standard to other states and explore other ways to increase the enforcement of existing DUID laws.
Of course, faithful NORML readers and most of the public know that cannabis metabolites can remain detectable in the urine for up to 100 days or longer for a regular cannabis consumer and up to fifteen days for the casual consumer, even after quitting cold turkey. Metabolites in urine don't tell you a driver is actually impaired, they tell you someone used cannabis, but not when. Even the US Department of Transportation admits that a positive test for drug metabolites is "solid proof of drug use within the last few days, it cannot be used by itself to prove behavioral impairment during a focal event."
Cannabis metabolites are funny things; they don't eliminate from the body in any predictable fashion. In fact, when you think about it, a metabolite is produced when the body metabolizes, or breaks down, a substance. The presence of metabolites for THC tells you the body has already broken down the THC! You could actually call a urine screening for metabolites a non-impairment test!
Now some of these laws do have per se standards for actual THC in the blood and you could argue that is a more realistic determinant of current impairment, but do you think most cash-strapped city, county, and state police are going to use an expensive, invasive blood test when a cheap urine screen is available and more likely to get them a conviction for DUID?
These per se DUID "zero tolerance" laws are nothing but discrimination against cannabis users, plain and simple. Metabolites for every other drug, legal and illegal, are eliminated from the body much more quickly:
These "zero tolerance" laws are criminalizing an entire population - cannabis users - for molecules in their bodies that have nothing to do with impairment or driving ability. Can you imagine the uproar if police harassed drivers based on the melanin content of their skin... whoops, never mind.
Follow Russ Belville on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RadicalRuss
The fact of the matter is, legalizing Marijuana is America's top political issue, again! This is according to a Change.org poll conducted for the year 2010.
To read more about this fact and the Change.org poll, simply visit the following link:
http://www.marijuananation.info/legalizing-marijuana-americas-top-political-issue
We must TAKE ACTION and hold Congress' feet to the fire or legalization will take that much longer. I encourage you to contact your elected officials and tell them to quit wasting tax payer money on Cannabis prohibition without reducing the abundant supply of Cannabis on the streets which is mostly being sold to minors. Guess what? Drug dealers don't ask for ID!
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5450
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3qUwczLnrY&feature=channel - there is a plethora of studies in the information section under the video...
Driving medicated is not the same as driving stoned. THC will show up 4 weeks after smoking or eating cannabis.
The statistics on marijuana and driving...
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7459
http://www.mpp.org/news/press-releases/white-house-gets-permission-to-lie.html
Myth: Marijuana Use is a Major Cause Of Highway Accidents. Like alcohol, marijuana impairs psychomotor function and decreases driving ability. If marijuana use increases, an increase in of traffic fatalities is inevitable.
Fact: There is no compelling evidence that marijuana contributes substantially to traffic accidents and fatalities. At some doses, marijuana affects perception and psychomotor performances- changes which could impair driving ability. However, in driving studies, marijuana produces little or no car-handling impairment- consistently less than produced by low moderate doses of alcohol and many legal medications. In contrast to alcohol, which tends to increase risky driving practices, marijuana tends to make subjects more cautious. Surveys of fatally injured drivers show that when THC is detected in the blood, alcohol is almost always detected as well. For some individuals, marijuana may play a role in bad driving. The overall rate of highway accidents appears not to be significantly affected by marijuana's widespread use in society.
Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. “Legalization: Panacea or Pandora’s Box”. New York. (1995):36.
Swan, Neil. “A Look at Marijuana’s Harmful Effects.” NIDA Notes. 9.2 (1994): 14.
Moskowitz, Herbert and Robert Petersen. Marijuana and Driving: A Review. Rockville: American Council for Drug Education, 1982. 7.
Mann, Peggy. Marijuana Alert. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1985. 265.
I mean, I could blaze friday night, stay in the whole weekend, leave for work monday morning fine, and not have a problem because I am not presenting myself to be a hazard to others driving. But, alternately, I could smoke a pipe in my car while driving down the thruway, and then I only get what's coming to me. Seriously, this is a common sense sort of law for many states.
I'm all for the legalization of marijuana, but with great power comes great responsibility, and I personally think the zero tolerance laws should be in place even when pot's legal, due to the stupid amount of accidents that occur because people are more concerned with getting high than being aware of their surroundings.
I am a 52yr old MMJ patient with 2ea different Doctors on board... All the facts point out Cannabis has great Medical potential and its use is now backed by the American Medical Ass...
Obama speaks out of both sides of his mouth.. He is protecting the DEA and all who are ignorant that oppose legalization of MMJ.. Using this as a Political issue instead of doing the right thing based on Facts... Americans are suffering, loosing property, and put in Jails based on Politics...
I write this at the same time I am helping another Cancer Victim get through and survive..