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Comment by cbthrowaway | Hacker News Reader

I've been a daily cannabis user for over a decade. I have a prescription for this, like millions of others with prescriptions for psychoactive medications without driving limitations. Would you send someone to prison for driving because they took their Adderall that morning? Cannabis is not like alcohol in regard to impairment of motor function and decision-making under the influence. Surely the same concentrations of particulate correlate to different levels of impairment in different individuals. Of course it is possible for individuals to be impaired by cannabis to the extent that driving would be dangerous. There are many factors. I'm wary of a device that purports to determine actions as dangerous based on the the measure of some particulate in the breath.

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Thank you for your feedback. It is really valuable to get the perspective of a frequent cannabis user. Cannabis tolerance is definitely a huge factor in determining whether or not someone is impaired. As a daily user, I am sure you are fine to drive after having used cannabis (although this is not legal advice :) ). However, people forget that there are significant tolerance effects for alcohol as well. There are people who can blow a 0.15% (well over the legal limit of 0.08%) and not exhibit any impairment symptoms. The key is finding a limit that allows police to identify actually impaired drivers while giving those with tolerance enough leeway to avoid being falsely charged. The scariest thing for frequent users is the blood legal limits being proposed in Canada and across the US, give that blood can have detectable levels of cannabis up to a week after abstinence. That is why one of our big focuses is finding a replacement for blood testing.

Thanks for your reply and engaging in this sort of discourse. I agree with all of your points, and also feel that technology in this area can help in conjunction with other indicators and tests to determine dangerously impaired driving. Any improvement over the existing testing methodology and legislation where some blood concentration possibly present from the week prior serves as enough for a felony conviction seems well warranted!

>The key is finding a limit that allows police to identify actually impaired drivers while giving those with tolerance enough leeway to avoid being falsely charged

Given that is an impossible statement, it sounds like you are admitting this will be used to falsely prosecute more people than it will let off the hook. This is a smash and grab that will adversely effect society, not help it. You keep comparing it to alcohol, but you should be comparing it to adderall. Do you think society needs adderall testing curbside as well?

There's nothing wrong with having a prescription for marijuana, even if the "prescription" is really just a state medical license provided by a sketchy doctor that you slip 200 USD once a year.

But please stay off the roads while you're under "psychoactive" effects (read: high) . There are LEGAL drugs that are illegal to use while operating a motor vehicle.

Hundreds of millions of adult Americans use psychoactive substances on a daily basis (SSRI, MAOI, SNRI, Caffeine, Nicotine or worse, opiates / benzodiazepines) and are under no driving restrictions or legal ramifications for doing so.

They are subject to a warning in the commercial.

>Cannabis is not like alcohol in regard to impairment of motor function and decision-making under the influence.

As someone has been high a few times before, I would most definitely not agree with this

And someone who has never drank alcohol could easily fall below the BAC limits for impaired driving while still being completely impaired, after just one drink.

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