Colorado Legislators Striking Back on Marijuana

Colorado's House Judiciary Committee passed House Bill 114 on February 26. Under this bill, people caught driving with five nanograms of THC in their blood stream would be deemed "driving under the influence of marijuana." The bill next goes to the House Appropriations Committee. If it passes there, it will go before the full Colorado House of Representatives.
This seems to be a somewhat brash and ill thought out act by the Judiciary Committee. As Tyron Link, a Colorado resident and medical marijuana patient points out, "It doesn't make me impaired now if I haven't smoked since yesterday. We're not even going by scientific evidence at all. We're just saying, 'Oh lets pick five nanograms."
He makes a good point: THC remains in the bloodstream from 3-5 days, so under this new law many drivers will be wrongfully convicted of driving under the influence, despite not being under the influence at all.
Speaking of evidence, there are countless studies dating back to the 1980s that actually show driving under the influence of marijuana doesn't impair drivers at all, and may in fact make them safer drivers. The first study, done by the US National Highway Transportation Safety Administration in 1983, concluded that "the only significant effect of cannabis use was slower driving." That is arguably a positive effect.
While alcohol makes drivers reckless, marijuana makes them cautious. A large study done in 1998 by the University of Adelaide and Transport South Australia looked at blood samples from drivers involved in 2,500 accidents. The study showed that drivers with only cannabis in their systems were slightly less likely to cause accidents than those without. The conclusion was that "there was no indication that marijuana by itself was a cause of fatal accidents."
In the United Kingdom, the Transport Research Laboratory conducted a study in 2000. The study found that drivers under the influence of marijuana were less likely to drive dangerously and were in fact more cautious. The study was conducted over four weeks using high drivers on driving simulators. Ironically, the study was commissioned specifically to find out how marijuana was impairing, when in fact it is quite the opposite. As that study concluded, "Marijuana users drive more safely under the influence of cannabis."
While there are many more studies I could point to, I will mention one more. The most recent study done on drugs and driving was published in the July 2004 Journal of Accident Analysis and Prevention. The Dutch Institute for Road Safety Research analyzed blood tests from people involved in traffic accidents. They found that even people with blood alcohol between 0.5 percent and 0.8 percent, which is below the legal limit, had a five-fold increased risk of a serious accident. Most importantly, the results of the marijuana-only users showed absolutely no increased risk of accidents at all.
Again, the Colorado bill seems to be a response to stifle the will of the people. The people have spoken, the evidence has spoken, yet the powers that be still want to refute them.