Cannabis Test Futile

[Oz]

more on the topic of cars & cannabis...

 

A veteran Northland road safety campaigner believes there is little point in the Government researching a test to measure motorists' cannabis levels.

 

 

"Police right throughout the world have been trying to work out a test for marijuana," Northland Regional Council Land Transport Committee chairman and former RoadSafe Northland co-ordinator Bill Rossiter said.

 

"The only one that seems to be successful is the British test, which is the old touch the nose, walk in a straight line, stand on one foot test they used to use for alcohol."

 

The issue of testing for levels of cannabis intoxication was raised at an inquest in Whangarei last week into the deaths of Clive Ian Reid, 42, and Regina Ereti Walker, 63.

 

The pair died after Mr Reid attempted to overtake while travelling south of Whangarei, colliding head-on with Mrs Walker's northbound car.

 

A subsequent blood test revealed that Mr Reid had traces cannabis in his blood.

 

However, it could not be established whether cannabis intoxication had contributed to the accident and coroner Peter Mahood had asked whether it would be worth obtaining an "established opinion" on levels of cannabis intoxication.

 

The concept was supported by crash expert Senior Constable Jim Hawthorn who gave evidence at the inquest.

 

However, Mr Rossiter said it was difficult to prove whether cannabis affected a person's driving.

 

It could stay in the blood stream for several days and frequent users were less affected than occasional users of the drug.

 

"All the research carried out to date has been anecdotal. Australia has tried to solve it for many years – they're still struggling with it," he said.

 

Other countries had also been grappling with the problem.

 

"We have to be able to test how it affects their driving. We have a line in the sand for alcohol levels, but there is no line in the sand for cannabis."

 

Research released in 2000 showed a high number of motorists killed in Northland road crashes had smoked cannabis.

 

National road safety researchers John and Margaret Bailey, carried out research on road fatalities between April 1995 and the end of 1996, revealed 39.9 per cent of Northland drivers killed in accidents had cannabis in their blood.

 

This was tempered by research carried out in Holland in 1992, which showed that drivers who tested positive for cannabis were less likely to suffer severe injuries because they tended to drive slower.

 

Mr Hawthorn said it was essential to develop a system to analyse cannabis use.

 

"I think we have to bite the bullet and set a level, similar to what we have done with alcohol."

Source: STUFF: National News

[boe~pimp]

Research released in 2000 showed a high number of motorists killed in Northland road crashes had smoked cannabis.

 

thats simply because more people are smoking cannabis i would imagine.

[Oz]

Research released in 2000 showed a high number of motorists killed in Northland road crashes had smoked cannabis.

 

thats simply because more people are smoking cannabis i would imagine.

True, most likely that & an increased population... oh & then there's the fact that what did show up in these unfortunate motorist systems could have been there for days...

[boe~pimp]

well yer, increased population and also increased amount of users.

Also what are they comparing it to ? how long have they been testing people for thc after accidents ? even had the technology to ?

i think it's still just another truthless article to throw in the propaganda bin

[Green Finned Demon]

If 20% of fatalities had been pulling cones then 80% were straight! So it must be safer to have 453 cones of primo hydro before driving and to have several dozen cones at each set of lights along the way just to be safe...... ::

[boe~pimp]

LMFAO i like your way of lateral thinking, good statistics