Posted on 02/25/2014 2:31:10 PM PST by BenLurkin
Meanwhile some states are rushing into “medical” marijuana.
To really mess the statistics up, there’d have to be a lot of such cases. And my guess is not many people are killed by sober drivers while stopped at a red light.
Do you think this article would make people more inclined to allow the federal government more power and authority if they promised to stop it?
“To the best of my knowledge, there is no reliable test for determining the level of actual impairment from marijuana at a given moment.”
Yeah, I think the best test is just a regular old field sobriety test, to judge their reflexes, balance, etc. You can tell from that if they are impaired, but it is very subjective, and it can’t tell you if the impairment is from marijuana or something else.
The problem is not just a specific situation, but the way they categorize their statistics. A fatality is “drug related” if anyone, even the victim, or a non-driving passenger is found to have drugs in their system. Same for “alcohol related”. If a guy who had 3 drinks and is walking home gets run over by a distracted texter, it is said to be an “alcohol related” fatality. If a sober driver with a stoned passenger gets hit by another sober driver, and someone dies, it’s a “drug related” fatality.
Also, we have no way of knowing how much that sloppy approach affects the statistics, without delving into every case they accounted for and recalculating all the statistics properly.
That makes sense.
Placemark.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.