First pot-caused death since legalization in Washington?

[pnwmom]

I don't know if there have been other possible cases, but this is the first I've randomly run across. And the driver has only been charged -- not convicted.

But still. If you're going to use, don't drive till you're straight again. You think your driving isn't impaired, but it's not worth the risk. Please. Just. Wait.

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2013/12/charge-driver-in-fatal-bellevue-crash-was-high-on-pot/


King County prosecutors have charged a 33-year-old Bellevue man with vehicular homicide, accusing him of driving while high on marijuana and causing the death of a motorcyclist on Oct. 4.

Caleb Floyd was arrested in connection with the death of Blake Gaston, 23, after failing field sobriety tests and other tests by a drug-recognition expert, but was released from custody two days later pending completion of the police investigation and toxicology tests on his blood, according to jail records and Bellevue police spokesman Carla Iafrate.

SNIP

Floyd “appeared spacey” to both witnesses and investigating officers at the scene, and police say he told officers he had smoked marijuana two hours earlier, according to the charges. More than three hours after the fatal incident, Floyd’s blood contained 9.8 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood, nearly double the legal limit of 5 nanograms per milliliter, according to Iafrate and charging documents.

Charging papers say Floyd was on his way to get food at the time of the crash, but don’t indicate where he was headed. The documents also say Floyd “used a ruse to obtain medical marijuana and then obtained marijuana for the purposes of becoming impaired,” but they don’t elaborate.

[PowerToThePeople]

1. How many alcohol related deaths in the same time period?

RIP Blake, I am sorry for what happened.

DUI is DUI is DUI. It should not matter the substance that impairs you. If you are not of clear mind, do not get behind the wheel of a 2000lb projectile.

[jberryhill]

2. Post hoc ergo propter hoc

[Mariana]

27. Really. As if no one ever got high and drove before the new law. nt.

[madville]

3. Regardless of guilt and situation

You never do this:

"..he told officers he had smoked marijuana two hours..."

At that point you should only be talking to your lawyer in private.

[customerserviceguy]

4. Pot-caused

or stupidity-caused? Doesn't matter what you do to get a buzz, you need to make sure someone sober is doing the driving. Or call up for delivery food.

[ellenfl]

5. still stoned 2 hours after toking? must be some good pot . . . or some made-up story. eom

[Alittleliberal]

6. This wasn't a pot caused death.

Your title is disingenuous.

[pnwmom]

8. IF this man was driving under the influence

then the death was caused by smoking the pot and driving while high -- just as the consumption of alcohol would have caused the death if he had been drunk driving.

[Bluenorthwest]

13. Also, marijuana is not legal in Washington until Jan 1st, so that is also a false

element in your title. 'Since legalization'? Legalization is not yet in effect. The entire title is crafted of bullshit and intended to mislead. That is why is not simple and honest and is instead dishonest and presumptive.

[pnwmom]

18. Splitting hairs. The law was passed months ago and people almost immediately,

including the police, started behaving as if it were in effect.

Some people think they can drive safely after the influence of pot, but it's not a theory that should be tested.

[Upton]

20. Actually, it was passed in Nov 2012..

and the part allowing adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce took effect on Dec 6th of last year..

Sales and growing remain illegal however..that's reserved for Washington State Liquor Control Board licensees. Retail stores are tentatively scheduled to open around June..

http://www.mpp.org/states/washington/i-502-overview.html

[pnwmom]

21. Thanks! n/t

[pnwmom]

22. Smoking pot has been legal for a year already. Go blow it out your nose! n/t

[jberryhill]

14. Let me see if I understand you

If someone has a drink, drives a car, goes through an intersection on a green light, and then is hit by a stone cold sober person running the red light at 20 miles over the speed limit, then it is "an alcohol caused accident".

Is that actually what you are saying?

[pnwmom]

19. That's not what happened. The pot smoker caused the accident,

not the victim.


Caleb Floyd was arrested in connection with the death of Blake Gaston, 23, after failing field sobriety tests and other tests by a drug-recognition expert

SNIP

According to charging documents, Floyd was driving east on Northeast 10th Street around 6 p.m. on Oct. 4 when he attempted to make a left turn onto 102nd Avenue Northeast, just as Gaston was riding west through the intersection on his 2005 KTM 450 motorcycle. All left turns at the intersection must yield to oncoming traffic, the papers say.

When Floyd failed to yield the right of way, Gaston brought his motorcycle down on his right side and skidded into the side of Floyd’s 1997 Acura CL, according to the charges.

[Alittleliberal]

16. Sorry you're wrong

If someone dies from alcohol poisoning the consumption of alcohol caused a death. If someone dies from a drunk driver alcohol is a factor, but the cause of death was the dumbass that got in a car and drove drunk.

In this situation the cause of death was a dumbass driver.

[Iggo]

25. Sense.

[Fenris]

7. Bothersome phrase

“used a ruse to obtain medical marijuana and then obtained marijuana for the purposes of becoming impaired"

I was unaware that medical marijuana is not used for the purpose of becoming impaired.

[bemildred]

9. Should be an interesting test case. nt

[hobbit709]

10. I think there's more to this than the skimpy, biased, facts in the article.

[Enrique]

11. there will be a lot of education needed

consisting of basically what you wrote, in various ways, repeated over and over, on TV and everywhere else:

"But still. If you're going to use, don't drive till you're straight again. You think your driving isn't impaired, but it's not worth the risk. Please. Just. Wait. "

[Upton]

12. In 2011, which is the most recent year I can find stats for..

there were 156 people killed in drunk driving crashes in Washington state.

Perhaps those who are making an issue of this one incident, and you can be sure almost all of them opposed I-502, ought to put things in perspective..

[sorefeet]

15. I think more people are killed

by unimpaired drivers rather than impaired drivers. And to be honest they don't have a clue as to what impaired on Marijuana actually is. My last urine test was 50 times over the legal DOT cut off limit, which is 4 nanograms I think. Montana just enacted a law that 5 nanograms is impaired. And you know what, they don't have A FUCKING CLUE. Whatever the fuck it takes to keep the prisons full of easy to control non-violent cash cows. This article is propaganda.

[Alittleliberal]

17. I could smoke yesterday

Wake up, go to work, drive home and get pulled over driving home and could fail the legal limit of 5 nanograms. It's way too low of a legal limit.

[NightWatcher]

23. It wasn't the pot's fault the driver showed bad judgement.

Please don't blame the plant.

[pnwmom]

24. You don't think being high could affect judgement?

And driving skills?

[NightWatcher]

28. Voluntary Intoxication

The driver did it. The title of the OP made it sound like the Pot shot a guy or was to blame. It was the drivers fault. It's not the first guy who died/killed while high.

[pnwmom]

32. He may be the first guy in Bellevue since the law was passed

to kill someone and to be charged with DUI of pot.

[Alittleliberal]

33. If you just posted that to start it would have avoided so much

No one disagrees with you that pot is an intoxicant. But your OP just misinterpreted the situation. It's not uncommon for people to try to spin pot into this awful thing. Hence the last 75 years of Reefer madness.I just want the conversation to be honest.

[pnwmom]

34. The title was just short-hand. I think there's a lot of hair-splitting

going on around here.

I voted FOR the law, but I think there are people who are over-confident about their driving skills while DUI of pot. And I wish they wouldn't be.

[Alittleliberal]

36. Semantics matter

They shouldn't, but they do. Especially in the era of 10 second soundbite news.

[Alittleliberal]

29. That's not what he said

[jberryhill]

38. I haven't read the literature on the subject

Would you like to identify relevant research on the topic, or is this just a matter of "I think it does, so it does."

Specifically, can you explain the degree of impairment associated with a 5 ng level?

Again, I don't know, but it appears you do, so I would appreciate your input.

[pnwmom]

43. It was the pro-marijuana initiative org that recommended the 5 level.

http://www.newapproachwa.org/content/about-initiative


• A new marijuana DUI standard that operates like the alcohol DUI standard will be established.

• I-502 sets a science-based limit of 5ng/ml active THC blood concentration.
DUI standard applies only to active THC, which drops below 5 ng/mL within a matter of hours, not the inactive metabolite carboxy-THC that can be detected days, or even weeks, after last use.

• Police officers still need proof of impairment to make an arrest and take a driver to a medical professional for a blood draw – just like current law.

The research sited by the pro-marijuana initiative website:

http://www.newapproachwa.org/sites/newapproachwa.org/files/I-502%20Backgrounder%20-%20Science%20Behind%20the%20Per%20Se%20-%20092912%202.pdf

[Egalitarian Thug]

26. No. Possibly the first death the authoritarians want to pin on pot,

but pot didn't cause the death. More RW BS.

[redqueen]

30. We'll see more of this kind of spin as more states move to legalize it. nt

[pnwmom]

35. I voted FOR the law and I'm not right-wing.

What you're doing is semantic hair-splitting. His being under the influence of pot may have caused the accident, if it turns out he is guilty.

If he's found guilty of the DUI, his spacey behavior means that pot affected him, which means that pot was a cause of the accident.

IF his guilt is proven.

[Egalitarian Thug]

37. Again, no. Any hair slitting being engaged in here is being done by you and

that bullshit article. The entire argument you want to make is based, as usual, on a false premise. The law, this article, and this case are all based on an assumption that the presence of pot equates to causation.

This is just the very early beginning flurries warning of the shitstorm of stupid that we are going to be subjected to as the movement away from insanity continues. This is about authoritarians' endless fear of everything, but especially the fear that they will loose some power to impose their will on others.

[pnwmom]

39. Yeah, right. And drunk driving doesn't cause any deaths, either.

[Egalitarian Thug]

40. There you go again. Setting up a false premise to prop up a fact-free argument.

Pot is not equal to alcohol and the presence of pot does not prove causation.

You can't even prove that being stoned diminishes driving ability.

[pnwmom]

42. I don't have to prove that being stoned diminishes driving ability.

There are decades of research proving that it affects reflexes, reaction time, and other aspects of driving ability, dating as far back as the 1980's when researchers were studying that at U.W.

http://www.wtsc.wa.gov/2013/08/08/law-enforcement-officers-know-when-youre-driving-under-the-influence/

The research sited by the pro-marijuana initiative website:

http://www.newapproachwa.org/sites/newapproachwa.org/files/I-502%20Backgrounder%20-%20Science%20Behind%20the%20Per%20Se%20-%20092912%202.pdf

[rdchili96]

41. *Sigh*

Pot related death, not pot caused death.

[Andy823]

31. I agree with you

If you are going to use anything that will impair your ability to drive, then stay the hell away from your vehicle, not matter what kind of vehicle that may be, especially if you are going to endanger the lives of others.