Weed and Driving Do Mix

Click to enlarge [Marijuana drive-in, opening soon...]
Marijuana drive-in, opening soon…
Legalize it! (in places where it’s not legal already, that is…) This catch phrase may pick up speed once again, after the Hartford Hospital and the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine published the results of another study concerning how driving under the influence of marijuana affects driving skills.
The conclusions of the study (already made public by several other organizations across the world, who conducted similar surveys) is that driving while high on weed does not affect skills, reactions and attention.
The study was carried out on a group of 50 male and 35 female subjects, all of which had used marijuana in the month prior to the test. Part of the people received placebo cigarettes, while the rest were given FREE MARIJUANA (courtesy of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the only legal source of cannabis in the United States, as the place advertises itself)
Using a driving simulator, the subjects had to navigate through unforeseen events like entering an intersection illegally, deciding to stop or go through a changing traffic light, responding to the presence of emergency vehicles, avoiding colliding with a dog who entered into traffic, and maintaining safe driving during a secondary auditory distraction.
The results: no difference whatsoever between the reactions of the two groups. Although a bit distracted, the ones who were high managed to cope in the same manner as the rest by being a bit more cautious and slowing down to avoid unexpected events.
“It does not in any way say that it is safe to drive under the influence of any drug,” study investigator Beth Anderson said after announcing the results. “It merely shows us, we need to
study this further.”