No problem BAMF. I enjoy debate, and have no emotions tied into this one, so all is good.
We can go back and forth all day with studies:
Researchers at Hartford Hospital and the University of Iowa have concluded a study of the effects of marijuana usage on driving skill. They found driving while stoned has "little effect" on driving skills
http://www.insideline.com/car-news/study-pot-has-little-effect-on-driving-skills.htmllol I am sure you have just as many.
We can safely say cannabis affects different people differently.
Now, I may not have been clear, but I never said driving while stoned is safe. I simply provided some facts about the dangers it truly has on us, and the technology to allow police the proper amount of information to make decisions. It is not safe, but the dangers aren't as drastic as many were lead to believe.
I think most would agree, that alcohol impairs your motor skills at a far greater rate, for the average user. We tolerate this drug, and make special rules about operating machinery. Why could we not use this same logic and apply it towards a less harmful substance such as cannabis?
Study after study shows teen use will decline with legalization. Adult use will stay about the same. So legal or not, you have the same amount of people using and driving. I simply do not feel with legalization comes more smokers. Portugal is proof, as they have decriminalized all drugs and did not see a huge increase in auto accidents or other.
But the recently released results of a report commissioned by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, suggest otherwise.
The paper, published by Cato in April, found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html ^^ from Time Magazine about decriminalization in Portugal.
Again:
Even if we acknowledge that stopping drug use is a justifiable social goal, how does the financial cost of our war on drugs appear in light of the other challenges we face?
I would never recommend driving under the influence of any drug.
Cannabis has been shown to improve driving ability of people with severe ADD. So it may have it's place, and further research needs to be done. We currently are limited in research, as it's a schedule 1 drug, more dangerous the cocaine, in the governments eyes. Things are not black and white. Cannabis is neither evil, nor good. It just is. Prohibition is a failed social test. Let's get on with it.
