One of the primary problems with medicinal marijuana is those using it and operating motor vehicles. If you are a non-pot smoker or marijuana user, how much tolerance do you have for people using THC and driving? Not much I bet.
The fact is both users of medicinal marijuana and recreational marijuana are driving under the influence regularly.
How do you tell if someone is too stoned to drive?
Keep in mind - driving while impaired by any drug is illegal in all states!
Most convictions for drugged driving now are based on police observations, followed later by a blood test, according to the Huffington Post.
The goal of course is to establish a field-sobriety test that can indicate whether a person is stoned at the time of the incident, or merely has residual THC in their system.
Of course, the problem is that marijuana stays in the blood long after the high wears off a few hours after use, and there is no quick test to determine someone's level of impairment – not that scientists haven't been working on it.
A solution needs to be found and quickly. Marijuana causes dizziness, slowed reaction time and drivers are more likely to drift and swerve while they're high.
Proposed solutions include setting limits on the amount of the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana, THC that drivers can have in their blood. But THC limits to determine impairment are not widely agreed upon.
The “legal limit” varies from state-to-state. Two states place the standard at 2 nanograms per milliliter of blood. Others have zero tolerance policies. And Colorado and Washington state are debating a threshold of 5 nanograms.
But several factors can skew THC blood tests, including age, gender, weight and frequency of marijuana use. Also, THC can remain in the system weeks after a user sobers up, leading to the anxiety shared by many in the 16 medical marijuana states: They could be at risk for a positive test at any time, whether they had recently used the drug or not.
Researchers envision a day when marijuana tests are as common in police cars as Breathalyzers.
We have some of the world’s greatest scientists. While this may not be the most pressing issue in medicine, there should be a priority placed on finding a Breathalyzer-type solution to test for marijuana.