How will over-the-limit, DUI driving infractions be determined

[RainDog]

49. here are some links

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/29/study-legalizing-medical-marijuana-reduces-traffic-fatalities/

From a study by the Institute for the Study of Labor - Legalizing Marijuana Reduces Traffic Fatalities.

Opponents of medical marijuana often focus on the social detriment to making America’s most valuable cash crop available to those approved by doctors, arguing that medical marijuana legalization makes it easier for teens to buy pot and that they’ll soon move to more dangerous drugs. They also suggest that legalization would increase the number of vehicle accidents — and that very argument was one of the main reasons why California voters did not approve full legalization in 2010.

Studying data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, researchers also found that legalizing medical marijuana did, in fact, drive up usage among adults. But contrary to medical marijuana critics’ claims, they were unable to find evidence of it growing the number of minors on the drug.

A further analysis of data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, spanning from 1990 to 2009, revealed that states which legalized medical marijuana saw a decline in alcohol consumption. A decline in traffic fatalities was a direct side effect of that.

Traffic fatalities are the leading cause of death for Americans age 35 and under.

Here's an article from a while ago about driving and marijuana -

http://www.pewstates.org/projects/stateline/headlines/driving-laws-explained-in-the-medical-marijuana-age-how-high-is-too-high-to-drive-85899381036

...Concerns over cannabis intoxication won’t go away. Voters in Colorado and Washington State will decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana use, while a dozen more states are considering legalizing marijuana for medical purposes. In this explainer, Stateline examines the research surrounding marijuana and road safety, and explores why it’s so difficult to say how high is too high to drive.

...According to a study by researchers from Yale University, alcohol-impaired drivers struggle with complex tasks like merging onto a crowded highway, but can generally perform automatic functions like turning on the car. Marijuana users, however, can better handle complex situations than simple tasks like following the curve of a road. The Yale study also notes that the effects of cannabis can vary a lot more between individuals than with alcohol. Factors such as a user’s age, weight, tolerance and smoking technique all can make a large difference in how the body absorbs THC.

Users of alcohol and marijuana also differ in their perceptions of their own impairment. Alcohol users tend to underestimate their level of impairment and drive faster and more recklessly. Drivers with a blood alcohol level of 0.04 percent — half the legal limit in most states — experienced impaired driving performance even though drivers themselves rated themselves as unimpaired, according to a frequently cited 1993 study from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).

By contrast, marijuana users tend to overestimate their impairment and don’t display as many obvious impairment symptoms. In the same government study, drivers who were given about one-third of a joint to smoke rated themselves as impaired even though their driving performance was not.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2722956/#__articleid2994706aff-info