People Against Drink/Drug Driving

Driver who killed 5 in crash had 'second largest level' of marijuana seen by medical examiner in living specimen: report

TheBloods gang member who killed five when he slammed into a family's car on a New York highway last year had the second-highest level of marijuana one medical examiner ever witnessed in a living specimen, prosecutors said at his sentencing on Tuesday.

Jamel Turner was sentenced to 27 years in jail for vehicular manslaughter and several other charges linked to the Valentine’s Day 2018 crash on Long Island when he rear-ended a car on the highway while traveling 154 miles per hour, the New York Times reported. All of the victims burned alive, prosecutors said.

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By Isaac Teo, August 3, 2022

(We do not want this is Australia! However, it will be an inevitability if we continue to give cannabis a free pass, specifically in the ‘medicinal’ context.)

Cases of drug-impaired driving continued to rise for the fourth consecutive year since the Liberal government legalized marijuana in October 2018, according to police data collated by Statistics Canada.

Released on Aug. 2, the study, titled “Police-Reported Crime Statistics In Canada 2021,” found that there were 7,690 cases of drug-impaired driving violations in 2021 compared to 7,621 in 2020.

In 2019, 6,453 such incidents were reported—a 43 percent increase over 2018, the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics, a department at Statistics Canada, said in its 2019 study released last July.

The latest study, first reported on by Blacklock’s Reporter on Aug. 3, also noted that other marijuana crimes increased last year.

“Drug-impaired driving is a major contributor to fatal road crashes, and young people continue to be the largest group of drivers who die in crashes and test positive for drugs,” said the report, titled “Public Opinion Research On Drug-Impaired Driving.”

“Among those who have operated a vehicle while under the influence of cannabis, most said they did not recognize their behaviour as risky, with two in five (39 percent) reporting they did not feel impaired and one in five (23 percent) believing they could (still) drive carefully.”

The report noted 26 percent of cannabis users have “operated a vehicle while under the influence.”

Cases of Drug-Impaired Driving up for Fourth Straight Year: Statistics Canada 

With the effect of cannabis on some of the parameters being studied for the first time in this study, the researchers discovered that cannabis had a detrimental effect on all of the visual parameters they assessed. 

Another study that investigated the effects of smoking cannabis on vision and driving performance also found that the visual effects of cannabis could impact driving performance, jeopardizing driving safety. Overall, it appears that information and awareness initiatives are critical for reducing the prevalence of cannabis-impaired driving.

Source: It's official. Smoking cannabis substantially alters the way you see (interestingengineering.com)

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Driving Under Influence of THC 2021 

Cannabis Legalization and THC in Injured Drivers 2022

Jan. 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Here's more evidence that marijuana may make driving more dangerous: As pot has been legalized in more countries and states, a greater number of people are driving intoxicated by the drug and crashing, researchers report.

THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, has been detected in twice as many injured Canadian drivers since 2018, when cannabis was first legalized. The same effect is being seen in the United States, said lead researcher Dr. Jeffrey Brubacher, an associate professor in the department of emergency medicine at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver

"This is an emerging and extremely important area of research," Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in a statement. "One recent study found increased rates of motor vehicle crashes in the six months following medical cannabis authorization in Canada, and another study found relative increased risk of fatal motor vehicle collisions of 15% and a relative increase in associated deaths of 16% in U.S. jurisdictions where cannabis is legal," she noted.

"As more and more states seek to legalize marijuana, it is crucial that we understand the impact of legalization on addiction and a range of other health outcomes, including driving accidents, to determine strategies for implementing legalization while minimizing the potential harms," Volkow added.

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