The difference between too drunk too and too stoned to drive
Kiro TV Stoned Driving Test
Testing the 5 Nano Gram Limit
Thurston County took a large step towards understanding meaningful impairment levels for stoned drivers in Washington state this week, as a part of the states challenge to create responsible driving limitations that would be similar to those for drinking and driving.
It has been said that the stricter DUID laws written into i502 were part of the reason Washington saw such a strong voter approval rating for 502 in comparison to bills in other states which failed to pass in 2012. With that in mind, Washington's legislature is hot on the grind trying to find ways to instill DUID laws that won't fill the courts up with lawsuits from medical marijuana patients who don't even want to risk being profiled as negligent drivers for limits well over 5 nanograms, even though they would be safe to drive.
Thankfully, law enforcement is taking their jobs seriously and doing what they can to document the truths about driving under the influence of cannabis sativa. As the video below shows, Kiro News and the Thurston County Drug Taskforce gathered three legal drivers together for a "how many stoners does it take to run over a cone session" in a private parking lot where they set up a simple obstacle course.
What do you mean I'm "too drunk to drive"?
I'm sure I'm not the only one who has heard their friends utter similar phrases at one point or another, when they were way too drunk to be operating a motor vehicle. It's rather common, even in typical controlled studies, that a person might consider themselves completely sober while being entirely too intoxicated from alcohol. Thus is the nature of alcohol, it has negative effects on our judgement that can have disastrous consequences.
Now, unlike other authors, I'm certainly not going to suggest to anyone that stoned driving is "safe" or "okay" in any sense, though being a long time mmj patient myself, I can certainly tell you that there is at least one major difference between being too drunk too drive and too stoned to drive...
Waay more stoned... Definitely shouldn't be driving...
As Dylan, Jeff and Addy so elegantly showed us and, when you're too stoned to drive, there is no way you won't know it.
Granted, it would have been a more scientific test if they had also had other drivers using other substances that impair your driving, though just the fact that they did not want to risk drivers under any other substances, silently says something all on it's own...
Yes, the vital difference between too drunk to drive and too stoned to drive, is that most drivers who are too stoned to drive, are also not likely to be aware that they need to be driving anywhere.
That being said, there are still going to be a minority of people who will disregard their own better judgment and get behind the wheel when they shouldn't. With testing like the above session, citizens of Washington are hopeful that fair and equitable DUID limits will be set in place to realistically protect the roads from unsafe drivers of any kind.
