Marijuana Users Are Being Unjustly Jailed For Allegedly Driving Under The Influence, Government-Funded Study Shows

Laws aimed at preventing marijuana-impaired driving in almost 20 states are
causing innocent people who show no signs of impairment to be criminalized
and imprisoned for allegedly operating vehicles while under the influence,
a new government-funded study shows.

Lawmakers and regulators aiming to reduce drug-impaired driving have long
sought to apply a familiar strategy from alcohol enforcement: setting a
numerical limit of THC in the bloodstream beyond which a driver is presumed
to be impaired, commonly referred to as a “per se” amount.

But the new study suggests that approach may be badly misaligned with the
science related to impairment from cannabis, the components and metabolites
of which can remain in the body day or weeks after use—when impairment is
no longer an issue.

“Many regular users of cannabis exceed zero tolerance and per se THC
cutpoint concentrations days after their last use, risking legal
consequences despite no evidence of impairment,” the study, which was
published in the scientific journal Clinical Chemistry and partially funded
by the National Institutes of Health and the State of California, found.

The findings echo earlier research showing weak or inconsistent links
between THC blood levels and crash risk. Large epidemiological studies have
found that while marijuana use may slightly increase collision risk, the
effect is far smaller than that of alcohol use.

“One of the primary problems with using THC concentrations in per se
legislation is that the pharmacokinetics of THC are much different from
ethanol,” the researchers wrote.

The authors noted that alcohol generally cannot be detected 1 to 2 days
after last ingestion, whereas THC can be measured up to 30 days after last
use because of its lipophilic nature.

To generate the data, researchers studied 190 heavy consumers who were
instructed to abstain for 48 hours. Following that several day period, the
participants’ blood THC concentrations were measured both before and after
cannabis consumption to establish baselines. They were also observed using
a driving simulator.

“Current cannabis blood concentrations used to identify impaired drivers
could land innocent people in jail,” the Association for Diagnostics &
Laboratory Medicine, which publishes the journal that the study appeared
in, said in a press release.

“Cannabis blood limit laws lack scientific credibility and are not an
accurate determinant of when drivers should face criminal charges or not.”

The authors of the study concluded that “more work needs to be done to
address how to best identify drivers who are under the influence of
cannabis and are unsafe to drive.”

“Despite evidence showing no correlation between the detection of THC in
the blood and driving impairment, 6 states in the United States have per se
laws using 2 or 5 ng/mL of THC as the cut-off point for driving under the
influence of cannabis, while 12 have a zero-tolerance law,” the journal’s press
release says.

The authors, affiliated with the University of California, San Diego and
the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research cautioned that additional
research is needed, saying “at present, the best protocol is a combination
of observations in the field and toxicology testing.”

A separate study last year found “no support that marijuana legalization
increased tolerant behaviors and attitudes toward driving after marijuana
use.” Authored by researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Ohio
State University, the study used data from a national traffic safety survey.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump’s now-confirmed nominee to lead a
key federal traffic safety agency said he’s prepared to “double down” on
increasing awareness about the risk of marijuana-impaired driving in
partnership with the White House.

The post Marijuana Users Are Being Unjustly Jailed For Allegedly Driving
Under The Influence, Government-Funded Study Shows appeared first on Marijuana
Moment.