US drug control agency will move to reclassify marijuana

"Also the idea of stoned people driving cars sounds scary. "

Depends how stoned, but people routinely drive while using medication that affects them far more than being a bit stoned.

i think driving is probably already dangerous enough without adding cannabis or any other psychoactive into the mix

well then i hope you lobby your representatives for bike lanes and public transit because america is a highly medicated place

I think that also sounds pretty scary. Seeing the state of drivers in the UK, without knowing what they’re under the influence of, if anything, it’s a pretty damning sight.

There is probably some form of bias here, as I don’t remember all of the good drivers, but not a day goes by where I don’t see drivers wandering into other lanes, performing dangerous undertakes, lane changes, or generally being terrible drivers, and you have to wonder why.

A lot of phone drivers, for sure, a lot of ignorant pricks too, but I’d bet on a lot of inebriated drivers given their conduct.

Example of a shocker I had today, I was turning right out of a resi street, a car with no indication stopped to let me out on my right, but it wasn’t safe (very tight, little visibility) so I waved him along. I stayed there for appx 30 seconds until I realised he wanted to turn into the street I was pulling out of. He didn’t indicate once. Just a completely wild disregard for any form of road etiquette, not to mention the Highway Code.

I’ll report it from my dashcam, but I doubt anything will be done by my local police force.

I think we need far more stringent fines and forced retests (along with removal of licence if they can’t meet the standard of a learner) for anyone committing a road traffic offence or blatantly breaching the Highway Code out of sheer ignorance.

Both of the above are illegal, though very hard to enforce.

In response to uninformed sibling comments reflexively fearing cannabis use in drivers, see here:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2722956/

> Cannabis users perceive their driving under the influence as impaired and more cautious, and given a dose of 7 mg THC (about a third of a joint), drivers rated themselves as impaired even though their driving performance was not; in contrast, at a BAC 0.04% (slightly less than two “standard drinks” of a can of beer or small 5 oz. glass of wine; half the legal limit in most US states), driving performance was impaired even though drivers rated themselves as unimpaired.

> This awareness of impairment has behavioral consequences. Several reviews of driving and simulator studies have concluded that marijuana use by drivers is likely to result in decreased speed and fewer attempts to overtake, as well as increased “following distance”. The opposite is true of alcohol.

I'd be more weary of people under the influence of anger, benzos, or other psychiatric drugs.

In my experience, cannabis is a performance enhancer in these cases, increasing awareness rather than decreasing it. After all, it does improve ADHD symptoms.

The culture around driving in the US is the problem. Many states will hand a license to pretty much anyone over 18 with nothing more than basic reading comprehension and eyesight required. Contrast this to say, the driving culture of Germany. There, everyone (not only minors) must undergo a rigorous training that is both broad and deep in scope. In addition to everything you'd expect, they also learn vehicle maintenance, basic first aid, performance driving skills (like the kind you'd pay to learn at a racetrack in the USA), and above all else, a deep respect and appreciation for the importance of following the rules of the road, leading to rigorous adherence to driving laws and etiquette that many Americans would find borderline anal-retentive.

However, the result is that I get to tell you fun facts such as the US interstate highway system having a higher rate of accidents and a higher rate of accident fatalities per vehicle-mile traveled than the Autobahn, in spite of the fact that hundreds of vehicles are hitting 180+ mph (300+ km/h) on a daily basis over there, while American highways mostly tend to be limited to 55/60/65/70/75 mph depending on state and road type.

or texting or otherwise looking at their phone while driving ...

I find it far more likely it has not been studied to the degree alcohol has been, and as a larger sample of users is tested these results will change.

I’ve heard every drug under the sun affect adhd for people lately, so I don’t know if that’s a divining rod for truth.

Had a guy say Fentanyl really helped his adhd… hm okay. I think our definitions and condition criteria need to separate into more discerning terms for a lot of medical conditions

Next we'll have studies seeking to prove drivers who drink enough to reach the Ballmer Peak will have a mind in the utmost condition for driving.

This has been my experience as well.

Heck, even the US adopting more of a Dutch/Belgian model would be better than what they use now. The bar to get a license is so low in the US that it's not really surprising how many people die in car accidents over there.

I say all this as an American who got their license the day they turned 16. I will never forget that during the driving exam, I was given the option to skip the parallel parking section in exchange for 1 point off of my score. The alternative was, if I hit a cone marking the edge of the course, I would fail outright. Of course I took the point off and walked out with my license! This was suburban Dallas in 2010? Funny enough, in 2013 I moved to Kansas and worked in a downtown area where parallel parking was basically a requirement. I took me about 2 months to get comfortable navigating into any spot on the street without rubbing my tires or being insanely crooked. Now that I live in Europe, I'm glad I had that experience because it's served me well regularly ever since.

Ethanol is a poison, what, outside of prejudice, would make you find it more likely it's simply a lack of studies? Maybe it simply hasn't reached me, but I never even heard about cannabis being chiefly blamed on a car accident, mind you, people can drive recklessly sober, but, again, if anything cannabis is going to make them be more cautious. For one, surely you have heard of the "paranoia" that cannabis users often get at higher doses, where they feel distant objects are closer than they really are.

I'm not surprised to see decades of propaganda and clichés have done their work on many of us.

After reading through that paper, it's pretty clear the authors were thorough in their research. They're referencing many of dozens of studies with many thousands of participants.

You mention that "results will change", but given that it's a lit review, I'm not sure which results you're talking about. I'm sure you read the contents of the link, so I'll ask directly - which study in particular did you find issue with? What do you think they did wrong?

Everything I've seen suggests that weed mimics or even exacerbates ADHD symptoms, where are you getting that it improves them?

There are studies. I think it's simply that ADHD tends to have anxiety at its root or at least it's a major component. Cannabis is also procognitive in appropriate dosages.

It's more like having stoner friends and doing things with them has convinced me just how important it is that they aren't the ones driving.

In fact, I'd say the same of anyone even people on traditional drugs.

I thought that these kind of effects are discussed with patients and they aware of the risks...

It's essential to make responsible choices regarding substance use while driving. We all just have to be responsible

Well you are completely right

Or, even simpler, be responsible and don't use substances if you'll be driving.

As an ADHD stoner that's never had any cognitive benefits from weed, I'd be very interested in reading about the exact conditions where that occurred in others. Please do share those studies if you can find them.

ADHD does not have anxiety at its root. ADHD is an executive functioning disorder. It can certainly cause anxiety, and I could see weed helping with that (though I've heard mixed reviews about treating anxiety with weed).

Simplest: be responsible with substances

I am friends with a researcher at a drug and alcohol lab at a major state university. Obviously alcohol is bad but he's pretty clear: marijuana absolutely impairs. The functional difference is marijuana users will drive slower and be more cautious but they are still not 100%. He said if you gave drunk drivers more practice drunk driving they'd also improve! Not enough to make them safe however.

There's also the two different strains - they have an effect on why marijuana studies have conflicting results. The researchers source bad weed because the IRB has made it impossible.

I understand it all 'looks' solid but the sourced weed, the difficulty of finding quality participants before legalization, and the IRB has led to some interesting data. I think it will take more time, society is not there yet.

Alcohol studies get tons of funding, and have been studied for years and years. nearly 40ish? Weed didn't earnestly get looked at until the 2010s. Mushrooms have conflicting results according to him, and he's seen Kratom fail every study he's tried, and he tried a great deal to find some proof with that.