Quote:
Originally Posted by Abdullah71601
There is a 100% likelihood that thousands of weed smokers will drive impaired. The good news is that there isn't a strong link between weed impairment and accidents once you account for all the variables (mixing with alcohol, mixing with other drugs, etc.).
Pot heads tend to know they are high and compensate for it. And the way weed affects the brain is "safer" than the way alcohol affects it. When you mix weed with alcohol though, you are completely impaired and risks skyrocket.
FWIW, I have known quite a few weed smokers over the years, including some current friends. All good people, all drive impaired, and all drive much slower impaired than they normally do.  |
Pretty easy to be a "good person" these days then, if one can knowingly get behind the wheel impaired and go out on public roads others use yet still be counted as such.
If you truly believe your statements that there's no risk to others posed by weed-impaired drivers because you suppose they "go slower", then surely you'd have no problem with putting your family on an airplane I was flying while I was at the controls while flying high myself?
And if it is as the advocates claim, that pot isn't addictive, that means if I did pilot an aircraft your family was on while high, I did so because I valued me getting high more than the lives of your family since I know it would alter my awareness and perception and therefore my judgment along with my reaction time.
Do I still get to be a "good person" if I knowingly degrade all those things while engaged in an activity (like driving) where inaction or slow reaction and loss of awareness will kill as quickly as "going too fast"? Apparently you don't mind that your friends knowingly degrade their judgement, reactions, and awareness etc while behind the wheels of their cars that me or my family members could also be on.
Of course, the actual science of impairment is broader than "pot is completely safe while operating a vehicle" using anecdotal "evidence" regarding one's friends and their supposed ability to self-compensate and mitigate all known risk by "going slower". Impaired operators of vehicles on the ground or in the air who's judgement, awareness, and decision-making capability has been degraded pose a higher threat which is supported by accidents, injury, and death. The rules and regulations restricting doing so have been written in blood.
There is no "good news" to be found in driving while high on public roads. Words designed to try and normalize abnormal/dangerous behaviour through irrelevant comparisons such as "Pot impairment is "better" than alcohol impairment" don't change that fact, and trusting the ability of potheads to self-compensate while judgement-impaired would be funny concept if it were limited to only hurting or killing themselves. If potheads want to drive or fly while high they should stick to their sofas where they belong and boot up an appropriate Playstation game to live it out in Pretend-land where their mistaken belief they're doing it awesomely poses no threat to anyone.