Comment by kdamken | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kdamken | Hacker News Reader

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Yes, all those things affect your ability to drive. You shouldn't text and drive, but people do it, etc. I would say being stoned is a lot worse than the other things you listed though:

- When you're tired, you can have a cup of coffee and wake up a bit and regain some of that focus. You can't drink a red bull and suddenly be way less high.

- If you send a text or two while driving, you're not paying attention to the road for a few moments (which is admittedly still crazy dangerous). If you drive stoned - you're driving less safely the entire time you're driving. The combination of the two is even worse.

- Having a heart condition doesn't mean you're going to necessarily have a heart attack every time you drive - there's just a higher risk that something might happen. Even in that case, you may be able to stop/pull over. Once again, if you drive stoned - you're driving less safely the entire time you're driving.

- You can have a backup pair of glasses, you can pull over, etc.

But my main point - just because there are other things that can make the already insanely dangerous activity of driving more risky, doesn't make driving high less bad.

> - When you're tired, you can have a cup of coffee and wake up a bit and regain some of that focus. You can't drink a red bull and suddenly be way less high.

Actually, there are terpenes in cannabis that mitigate many of the confusing effects, which can be found in foods such as black peppercorns and pine nuts. Pliny the Elder wrote about this; see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3165946/ So yes, there are ways to get "less high."

Not advocating that driving while high/texting/tired is a good idea, just trying to enlighten about some of the fascinating science behind Cannabis.

This is really interesting - thanks for the link. I'd be curious to see how effective that is in real life.

Stoned is ambiguous though. Nobody thinks it's ok to drive with a BAC of 0.4 but 0.04 is generally considered legal.

The question becomes what's Stoned? Detectable is not a reasonable limit nor is can't stand up.

> Nobody thinks it's ok to drive with a BAC of 0.4 but 0.04 is generally considered legal.

Not sure how you come to that conclusion. I think it's reasonable to assume it's legal because most people (including me) feel it's fine. I'm much more concerned about distracted driving generally.

A BAC of 0.04 is measurably impaired though. Mostly in terms of higher brain functions and reaction times making it both less obvious and often within a persons 'normal' range.

Something to remember is people generally drink late in the day. So, the accident statistics mix drinking and tired data. Tired driving makes things far worse, but it's hard to test for as accidents and being pulled over both tend to wake people up. Pot on the other hand is more often a daytime drug which is going to mess with the statistics.

BAC exists because a test exists to easily measure it. Breathalyzers aren't perfect, but they're good enough for government work.

I think an actual blood test is the only thing we got for MJ. That's invasive, and not likely something officers will be able to do at a traffic stop.

> Nobody thinks it's ok to drive with a BAC of 0.4 but 0.04 is generally considered legal.

Unfortunately, even 0.04 can get you arrested in California.

The BAC limit is simply when the DMV automatically pulls your license. You can be convicted of DWI/DUI at any BAC in California.

Now, you aren't likely to get pulled over at BAC less than 0.05, but if you do get pulled over, you can still get convicted for it.

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