Driving Under the Influence, of Marijuana

[Jesus Malverde]

If you are pulled over on suspicion of drunken driving, the police officer is likely to ask you to complete three tasks: Follow a pen with your eyes while the officer moves it back and forth; get out of the car and walk nine steps, heel to toe, turn on one foot and go back; and stand on one leg for 30 seconds.

Score well on all three of these Olympic events, and there’s a very good chance that you are not drunk. This so-called standard field sobriety test has been shown to catch 88 percent of drivers under the influence of alcohol.

But it is nowhere near as good at spotting a stoned driver.

In a 2012 study published in the journal Psychopharmacology, only 30 percent of people under the influence of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, failed the field test. And its ability to identify a stoned driver seems to depend heavily on whether the driver is accustomed to being stoned.

Read More: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/health/driving-under-the-influence-of-marijuana.html

[NightWatcher]

1. The field test for stoners is when the cop throws a Snickers in the back seat of his cruiser

If you're high enough, you'll go get it only to find that the car doors won't open from the inside.

[Fumesucker]

2. I wonder how many people pass that test totally unimpaired?

[Scuba]

5. Stoned folks likely do better.

[Bandit]

3. What is shocking to me is 30% failed the test.

I find that statistic highly improbable.

[jberryhill]

15. The baseline is the sober failure rate

Go ahead, recite the alphabet backwards.

If you've been driving for a while, you just might be a little unsteady on your feet when asked to get out of a car and having a flashlight shone in your face.

[Warpy]

4. Actually, the field sobriety test also turns up wrecked drivers

as well as exhausted drivers. In any case, driving behavior is what needs to be noted, not what might or might not have caused it.

Stoned drivers, unlike drunks, are all too aware they're impaired and tend to overcompensate by driving well under the speed limit and sticking to back streets while they can.\

Drunks, on the other hand, are disinhibited and full of false confidence. We've all heard the braggart who says he drives better when he's drunk.

Drivers who are driving erratically with the car reeking of pot are generally drunk, too.

Drug warriors are just too quick to blame evil pot.

[Politicalboi]

6. With today's weed, it's safe

I could smoke an entire ounce and still drive straight as a board. Back in the day, it only took 2 or 3 hits, and you were buzzed for HOURS. And back then there was a lot of creeper weed going around. You smoke it and think, that was nothing, and within 10 minutes your eyes are red, and your mouth is dry. I've said it many times, weed today is NOT stronger than weed 30 or 40 years ago. I know, I was there. Tolerance has NOTHING to do with this. How does my tolerance make weed no longer stick to your baggie. How does my tolerance make your eyes not glassy red. And how does my tolerance take away radical cotton mouth.

All these "tests" that show it's "stronger" is bullshit. Let's make it legal and get imported shit from Thailand.

[In_The_Wind]

7. It's going to be interesting. That's for sure.

Those 3 test aren't going to work for most stoners.

However the smell of pot smoke in a car should be a dead give away that somebody has been smoking it. Not necessarily the driver. Perhaps a passenger smoked at home before getting into the car. The smell lingers long after the joint is gone.

[loli phabay]

8. the thing is your not looking for people stoned just impaired

if you pass the fst then your good to go, usually if you have been drinking you will be offered a pbt after the test, and you shoukd not be arrested on the pbt but you may be advised to get a sober driver to come get you and your vehicle. in va pbt is not a reason to arrest but rather a tool to get level of impairment. vertical hgn can show if you are under the influence of drugs and that combined with the fst and driving can be probable cause for arrest. then you will be taken for blood if substances are suspected.

[In_The_Wind]

11. Yeah. Like I said ... going to get interesting.

[raven mad]

9. Geez, that would be my spouse stopping for a stop sign.

Three blocks before the intersection............. (don't worry, it was a deserted, gravel road about 8 miles from anywhere).

[former9thward]

10. Refuse field sobriety tests.

Do not admit either alcohol or drug use no matter how little or how long ago. Any positive answer just gives them probable cause for a breath and/or blood test. If a cop asks you to do a field sobriety test he has already decided to arrest you. He is just looking for more evidence to support it. Don't do it.

[JJChambers]

12. Better yet:

Don't risk your life and the lives of others by driving while under the influence of alcohol or other impairing substances.

[HuckleB]

14. +1,000,000 ... 000 !!!!!

[Malone]

13. field sobriety

My dad often tells the story of when he was thrown out of jury duty in his younger days. The case involved a person who was, according to the police, obviously inibreated but still able to pass the field sobriety test and the police arrested him anyway. What they didn't say at first was the police knew he was high on marijuana but had no way of proving it to arrest him, like everyone knew he was high and he may have even admitted it but he passed the field test to their frustration.

Anyway, when questioned my Dad's point was that if he was able to pass the field sobriety no matter what he was on then he wasn't under the influence, that was the whole purpose of the test and why they have the test. The prosecuting attorney got furious and started yelling that my Dad was influencing the other jurors and demanded he shut up(because he had basically destroyed the prosecution's whole argument). My Dad kept talking a little and was forcibly removed by bailiffs haha.