Making the Case for Medical Marijuana

[heironymouspasparagus]

If you can't believe the insurance industry, who can you trust?  They say that stoned drivers have fewer accidents...

One study by the U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration shows that drivers with THC in their systems have accident responsibility rates lower than those of drug-free drivers.

http://www.4autoinsurancequote.com/uncategorized/reasons-why-marijuana-users-are-safe-drivers/


And as always, Sauerkraut is wrong.

[Hoss]

If you can't believe the insurance industry, who can you trust?  They say that stoned drivers have fewer accidents...

One study by the U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration shows that drivers with THC in their systems have accident responsibility rates lower than those of drug-free drivers.

http://www.4autoinsurancequote.com/uncategorized/reasons-why-marijuana-users-are-safe-drivers/


And as always, Sauerkraut is wrong.

Nah, not always.

It's tasty on Brätwurst.

[patric]

Meanwhile, the lost war wages on...

A 65-year-old woman recently came under suspicion for having a Buckeye leaf decal on her car.  The cops mistook it for a marijuana symbol.
"It's just amazing they would be that dumb,"  Bonnie Jonas-Boggioni said.

She lives in Plano, Texas, but she grew up in Columbus and is known as a lifelong Buckeyes fan.
She has served as president of the Ohio State Alumni Club in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

On Feb. 4, Jonas-Boggioni and husband Guido Boggioni, 66, were driving home to Plano after a trip to Columbus to attend the funeral of his mother, Eleanor, 92.
They were in the westbound lanes of I-40, a few miles east of Memphis, when a black police SUV with flashing lights pulled them over, Jonas-Boggioni said. A second black SUV soon pulled up behind the first one.
"Knowing I wasn't speeding, I couldn't imagine why," she said.

Two officers approached, one on each side of the car.
"They were very serious," she said. "They had the body armor and the guns."

"What are you doing with a marijuana sticker on your bumper?" he asked her.
She explained that it is actually a Buckeye leaf decal, just like the ones that Ohio State players are given to put on their helmets to mark good plays.

"He looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language," she said.

The officer then explained that someone from outside his jurisdiction — apparently another officer — had spotted the leaf sticker and thought it might indicate that the car was carrying marijuana, Jonas-Boggioni said.
She was too rattled to notice what police department the officers represented. But she suspects that a joint drug-interdiction effort was under way because they had passed several law-enforcement vehicles from different agencies.

Neither the Tennessee Highway Patrol nor the Shelby County sheriff's office in Memphis had information about the traffic stop. A marijuana sticker would not be a sufficient reason to stop a car, said a spokeswoman for the West Tennessee Drug Task Force.

Before they let her go on her way, the officers advised Jonas-Boggioni to remove the decal from her car.
"I said, 'You mean in Tennessee?' and he said, 'No, permanently.'

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2013/02/14/buckeye-leaf-mistaken-by-police-out-of-state.html

[dbacks fan]

Nah, not always.

It's tasty on Brätwurst.

Or corned beef or pastrami........ 

[DolfanBob]

Thats hilarious Patric. The Police might want to do a "compliance" check over at Starship and other Head Shops around town. Since them stickers might lead to more traffic stops. 

[Conan71]

If you can't believe the insurance industry, who can you trust?  They say that stoned drivers have fewer accidents...

One study by the U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration shows that drivers with THC in their systems have accident responsibility rates lower than those of drug-free drivers.

http://www.4autoinsurancequote.com/uncategorized/reasons-why-marijuana-users-are-safe-drivers/


And as always, Sauerkraut is wrong.

Except the website you sourced is not an "insurance industry" web site.  It's nothing more than a commercial solicitation site for car insurance quotes. There are multiple problems with this "report".  Some "studies" cited are now 30 years old, there is no bibliography of all these other studies, and we have no idea if the Dutch authority listed is actually a scientific or governmental authority.  If NHTSA ever actually did agree that pot improves driving performance, that is no longer their position on it, according to information I sourced directly from NHTSA below.

I'm only bringing this up because there's a good lesson here about how much crap circles the internet with very little to corroborate what they claim.  That problem has a lot to do with the half truths, hyperbole, and outright lies in the political sphere that help widen the political divide in this country, but I digress.  There are probably nuggets of truth scattered around the report you cited, but there is also a lot of un-named sources for the author's conclusions.  From personal experience, I can honestly say smoking pot while snow skiing made me feel much more focused but I have no empirical evidence to back that up, only stoned recollection.

This is the official word on what the National Highway Safety Transportation Board says.  Noted the bibliography with referenced reports at the end.

Smoking marijuana can seriously impair the ability to drive a motor vehicle safely, but many marijuana users actually believe they drive better while under the influence of cannabis.

An article on this website titled Marijuana Causes Many Deaths Reported as 'Accidents', drew comments from many self-reported marijuana users who insisted their driving is not affected by being high, and in fact, some were adamant that their driving skills actually improve under the influence.

But scientific research does not back up these claims. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reviewed 25 published studies conducted on the effects that smoking marijuana has on driving skills and performance. The review was part of the agency's effort to determine the effects on driving of more than 16 illegal and prescription drugs.

The resulting NHTSA Fact Sheets not only outlined the overall effects of smoking marijuana on users, but detailed specifically how smoking weed can impair driving skills. Following are some of the findings.

1. Problem Solving
One of the known effects of marijuana is that it hampers the ability call on past experiences to solve immediate problems, which could be dangerous in an emergency traffic situation. Studies have also shown that marijuana can cause problems with memory and learning, distorted perception, and difficultly in thinking.

2. Attention Span
Research has shown that heavy users of marijuana have difficulty in sustaining attention over an extended period of time. Other studies have found that weed smokers are hampered in shifting attention to deal with changes in their environment. Heavy smokers also have problems registering, processing and using new information. All of these factors can hamper driving ability.

3. Driving Performance
Several studies have reported that marijuana users exhibit decreased vehicle handling performance, increased reaction times and impairment in estimating time and distance. Other studies have found that marijuana impairs the driver's ability to maintain headway and maintain sustained vigilance.

4. Perceptual Functions
Laboratory studies of drivers using marijuana have found that smokers' sensory functions are not severely impaired, but their perceptual functions are significantly altered. Researchers report lab results that sleepiness and uncoordination can also affect driving skills of smokers.

5. Dose-Related Impairment
Several studies have shown that driving impairment is dose-related. In other words, the more someone has smoked, the greater the impairment. This is particularly true in regards to the ability to concentrate and maintain attention, and for hand-eye coordination.

6. Distortion
Other skills impaired by marijuana use that can cause the loss of driving ability include distortion of time and distance, impairment of retention time and tracking, and vigilance and loss of coordination. These impairments can be dangerous when driving at higher speeds or over longer periods of time, research shows.

7. Short-Term Focus
Some studies have shown that marijuana users can indeed focus their concentration and actually improve their driving performance by overcompensating for their self-perceived impairment. However, drivers in these studies were able to do this for only a brief period of time. The greater the demands placed on the driver in these studies, the less they were able to overcome their impairment.

8. Prolonged Trips
Research has found that smoking marijuana can have significant impairment during monotonous or prolonged driving. The longer the drive, and the more monotonous the driving becomes, the greater the chance that reaction times are impaired.

9. Long-Term Effects
Generally, marijuana use significantly impairs a driver's skills for the first 1-2 hours, but driving simulator studies have found impaired skills up to 3 hours. Some studies have recorded residual effects on driving up to 24 hours after marijuana use.

10. Increases Alcohol's Effects
Studies have found that simultaneously smoking marijuana and drinking greatly increases the impairment effects of both drugs. Experts say that mixing alcohol and marijuana does not have an additive effect on driving skills, but a multiplying effect. The resulting impairment is greater than either drug would be by itself.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. " Drugs and Human Performance Fact Sheets: Cannabis / Marijuana." March 2004

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "Drug-Impaired Driving: Understanding the Problem and Ways to Reduce It: A Report to Congress (PDF)" December 2009

http://alcoholism.about.com/od/drugged/tp/Ways-That-Marijuana-Impairs-Driving.htm

Related information from NHTSA:

http://www.nhtsa.gov/People/injury/research/job185drugs/cannabis.htm

Performance Effects: The short term effects of marijuana use include problems with memory and learning, distorted perception, difficultly in thinking and problem-solving, and loss of coordination. Heavy users may have increased difficulty sustaining attention, shifting attention to meet the demands of changes in the environment, and in registering, processing and using information. In general, laboratory performance studies indicate that sensory functions are not highly impaired, but perceptual functions are significantly affected. The ability to concentrate and maintain attention are decreased during marijuana use, and impairment of hand-eye coordination is dose-related over a wide range of dosages.Impairment in retention time and tracking, subjective sleepiness, distortion of time and distance, vigilance, and loss of coordination in divided attention tasks have been reported. Note however, that subjects can often "pull themselves together" to concentrate on simple tasks for brief periods of time. Significant performance impairments are usually observed for at least 1-2 hours following marijuana use, and residual effects have been reported up to 24 hours.

Effects on Driving: The drug manufacturer suggests that patients receiving treatment with Marinol® should be specifically warned not to drive until it is established that they are able to tolerate the drug and perform such tasks safely. Epidemiology data from road traffic arrests and fatalities indicate that after alcohol, marijuana is the most frequently detected psychoactive substance among driving populations. Marijuana has been shown to impair performance on driving simulator tasks and on open and closed driving courses for up to approximately 3 hours. Decreased car handling performance, increased reaction times, impaired time and distance estimation, inability to maintain headway, lateral travel, subjective sleepiness, motor incoordination, and impaired sustained vigilance have all been reported. Some drivers may actually be able to improve performance for brief periods by overcompensating for self-perceived impairment. The greater the demands placed on the driver, however, the more critical the likely impairment. Marijuana may particularly impair monotonous and prolonged driving. Decision times to evaluate situations and determine appropriate responses increase. Mixing alcohol and marijuana may dramatically produce effects greater than either drug on its own.

[patric]

The Police might want to do a "compliance" check over at Starship and other Head Shops around town. Since them stickers might lead to more traffic stops. 

I would not think a headshop would want to sell a buckeyes decal.  What would that be, the "K-2" of bumberstickers?

http://www.ksn.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=3947794

[Townsend]

Senate panel kills medical marijuana bill

http://normantranscript.com/headlines/x1503758629/Oklahoma-Senate-panel-kills-medical-marijuana-bill

A Senate committee on Monday defeated a proposal to legalize the medical use of marijuana in Oklahoma, but the bill's author said she considers it a victory that the measure was even granted a legislative hearing. Members of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted 6-2 against the measure in a party-line vote with Republicans in opposition. "I think it's a step in the right direction in terms of moving it forward and getting some indication of what people's reservations are so we'll know what to address," said Sen. Constance Johnson, D-Oklahoma City, who has introduced several bills over the last six years to allow for the medical use of marijuana or ease the penalties for possession of the drug.

[patric]

Senate panel kills medical marijuana bill
http://normantranscript.com/headlines/x1503758629/Oklahoma-Senate-panel-kills-medical-marijuana-bill

So Republicans dont get cancer?
I didnt know that was what it was all about. 

[Teatownclown]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/justice-department-poised-respond-states-legalized-marijuana-100308025--election.html

so it really begins....


I read about our councilors attempting to take control of the city's marketing efforts from our deeply bedded duplicitous chamber in Warren's World today. Then I saw this article on Yahoo.

Poor Tulsa. They will never get in front of the curve....the rest the country is so much more appealing.

[Conan71]

I got a contact buzz just from looking at the image connected to the story.

[Townsend]

Reduced marijuana penalties OK'd by Oklahoma panel

http://newsok.com/reduced-marijuana-penalties-okd-by-oklahoma-panel/article/3759545

Criminal penalties for marijuana possession in Oklahoma would be reduced under a bill passed without objection by a House committee. The House Public Safety Committee voted 14-0 on Wednesday for the bill that would make first and second offenses of marijuana possession a misdemeanor. Under current law, a second offense is a felony punishable by between two and 10 years in prison. Stillwater Democratic Rep. Cory Williams says he would have preferred to make all marijuana possession offenses misdemeanors, but that such a proposal was unlikely to pass the committee.

[Vashta Nerada]

Illinois Medical Marijuana House Committee Vote: Panel OKs Pot Plan
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/07/illinois-medical-marijuana-house_n_2828463.html

"Seriously ill people who receive significant relief from their use of marijuana should not be treated like criminals," Riffle said. "If their doctors believe treating their conditions with medical marijuana will improve the quality of their lives, they should not have to risk being arrested and prosecuted."

Opponents to the bill argue it would increase recreational use of the drug especially among teens, though such attitudes are quickly shrinking in to the minority: A February poll of Illinois residents overwhelmingly support the legalization of marijuana in the state.

[Vashta Nerada]

U.S. States Race to Put New Medical Marijuana Laws on the Books
http://www.counselheal.com/articles/4258/20130307/u-s-states-race-put-new-medical-marijuana-laws-books.htm

In the wake of marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington, many states that had not considered legalizing medical marijuana are. In fact, Florida, Illinois and New Hampshire are allowing for similar allowances. Other states with medical marijuana programs are seeking to improve or expand their programs.

Medical marijuana has become increasingly popular. Though the federal government officially says that the medical benefits of marijuana are still relatively unproven, three dozen states either have laws allowing it or are considering it. More people believe that marijuana legalization should be legal in general. According to the Central Florida News, 51 percent of Americans believe favorably in legalization.

It seems that lawmakers are taking notice. In Illinois, the Huffington Post reports that the House of Illinois will be considering a bill to approve medical marijuana. Though this would not be the first time that such a bill was considered in the state of Illinois, legislators believe that they have tightened regulations to make the bill more appealing on both sides of the aisle. Medical marijuana would be accessible to people with a qualifying condition, like cancer, HIV and multiple sclerosis, and who have a special identification card. The approved users would be able to purchase cannabis at any of the 66 state-approved dispensaries.

In the Northeast, New Hampshire lawmakers will be considering the legalization of medical marijuana. The Associated Press reports that the legislature has previously passed three similar bills, all of which have been vetoed by the state's governor. This bill, if signed into law, would forbid out-of-state consumers from purchasing cannabis in the state's dispensaries, which was allowed in previous versions.

In Florida, legislators filed a bill this week would allow medical marijuana in the state. Named the Cathy Jordan Medical Cannabis Act, the bill is named after the President of the Florida Cannabis Action Network. Ms. Jordan suffers from Lou Gehrig's disease and, earlier this week, police seized medical marijuana from her home.

[Vashta Nerada]

Poll: Majority Supports Legalizing Marijuana
For the first time in four decades of polling on the issue, Pew Research found that a majority of Americans supports legalizing marijuana.
Just over seven in 10 Americans say efforts to enforce marijuana laws "cost more than they are worth."

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/04/04/poll-majority-supports-legalizing-marijuana/