Originally posted by: Fear No Evil
I do have some problems with that test. First of all, the driver admits to trying to concentrate harder knowing that he was being tested and under the influence of pot. Next, as they said.. there was no way to judge how much he had injested. If he smoked twice or three times as much would it have changed the outcome?
No. The driver said he concentrates harder while driving because of fear of what might happen. That isn't limited to a test, that is how it works in the real world. You concentrate a lot more. One time driving a distance of about 5 miles seemed to me like it took an hour... and I was going between 35 & 40 in a 40mph zone. People think that it slows you down, so you can't respond as fast... But really your perception of time slows down, and gives you longer to react.
The amount does change your reaction. But you are really aware of your condition. When you drink, you think you are fine. Not the case here. You know you are altered, and act accordingly. You also know if you've had too much. But the few times I needed to drive while completely blazed, I still drove fine. Your quick trip becomes a huge journey. It takes forever(in your head).
But most importantly - Which is the point I made earlier.. here we are, with you ADMITTING to driving under the influence of a controlled substance.. and Anandtech apparently does not care about this?
This is just f--king stupid.. Argue for the legal use of pot if you want, but saying smoking while driving is acceptable is just WRONG.. hell, many places in this country you can't use a cell phone while driving yet you appear to be advocating being high while smoking as a good thing, and openly admit you DO it..
You know what.... I use a cell phone while I drive all the time too. Not just calling... text messaging too. And yes, I end up missing a slight curve in the road so I have to swerve back into my lane sometimes(never when a car is next to me) and making other slight corrections after my concentration was somewhere else. Driving using a cell phone is damned dangerous, and I know I shouldn't do it. But I'm more confident having me do it, versus others doing it, cause I know what I'm doing and I'll never get into an accident because of it.
But marijuana is different, and I can count on two fingers the number of times I've had to make a sudden driving correction. I can say with 110% certainty that I am a safer driver while stoned than while using a cell phone. And I can count on a stumpy no-fingered hand how many times I've texted while driving baked. So apparently I make a better decision then lol.
I'm sorry, but being under the influence of ANY substance while driving puts MY life and my family's life at risk. I don't trust a youtube video as proof that its not happening.
Any controlled substance? Like the amphetamines I take every morning? I beg to differ. I concentrate a hell of a lot better driving when I take Adderal.
And for reference sake:
I've driven drunk in my life two times.
Once, I got kicked out of my friends house and had to leave. We were all drunk and he caught his girlfriend and I fooling around. I drove about a quarter mile to the nearest business parking lot and called my brother to pick me up. My driving was terrible, and I knew it.
The other time, I was the least impaired in my group of friends, and driving was a tactical decision based on logical thinking. The others weren't going to call a taxi or anything, it was either I drove or they drove, so I made the best decision I could.
Personally, I hardly ever drink anymore because I don't like being impaired like that. I would whole-heartedly support prohibiting alcohol again in exchange for legalizing marijuana.
One more anecdote for you.
I have a friend, who in the past has used pretty much every drug that exists. He's been addicted to heroin, meth, alcohol, and tobacco.
He broke the heroin addiction years ago, and has never touched it again. He hasn't used meth in a year or so, but tends to rotate using and not using. I think he may be done for good.
He's also used crack, coke, pcp, oxycontin, etc, etc, etc. He's never been addicted to any of these. He doesn't even like using crack, he could never become addicted to it.
So right now, his addictions are alcohol and tobacco. He smokes marijuana regularly, but it is not an addiction.
I've asked him how things rank as addictive, in his experience and the experiences of all his friends who were hard core drug addicts like him. The order was Heroin, Meth, crack, Tobacco, Alcohol, coke, everything else.
He's successfully quit heroin and meth. He believes he'll die before he could ever give up tobacco. He could quit drinking if he wanted to, but he likes being an alcoholic. (He doesn't think he could quit, but I've seen him go weeks between drinks so I know he could do it if he decided to) But I've known people who were addicted to alcohol a lot worse than him.
So, I'm all far having heroin, meth, crack, tobacco, and alcohol banned. I really do believe they all should be. Every one of those drugs has terrible consequences and terrible addictive properties.
Marijuana does not. No one ever beat their wife because they smoked too much pot. There is no confirmed link between smoking pot and lung cancer (no one smokes 2 packs of joints a day). The only addiction to pot is mental, not physical (like heroin, meth, crack, tobacco, and alcohol).
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