Yes might be wise 🙂 If i see you i’ll wave 🙂

I used to smoke and drive all the time but have now stopped for several reasons: 1. I don’t want to lose my driving licence, they ban you for a year if tested positive at the roadside. 2. It did affect my driving, espicially at night. On a normal country road wide enough for two cars when a car was coming the other way I’d have to slow right down, had trouble judging if the distance was safe. Also it just zapped my confidence, would shit myself driving on the motorway when you need to be a bit more confident. I would actively seek A roads and spend longer in the car.

Cycling (from home or if someone else is driving) and weed though, that’s a different matter 😉

I’d feel happier if people drove slowly, whilst fully alert!

I’d rather they slowed down and drove more carefully, if a puff helps them do that then it should be compulsory in my book.
You seem to accept the aspects of the evidence you like, but dismiss the rest as ‘vague’

” the easy answer to this is “

– take the train?
– don’t go?

Gauss – cannabis impairs psychomotor skills and the drivers know this, concentrate harder and drive slower. However this is in controlled testing. The question is in the real world do they always compensate in this way?

“marijuana impairs driving behavior.” This was stated as fact.

“the impairment in driving skills does not appear to be severe, even immediately after taking cannabis, when subjects are tested in a driving simulator. This may be because people intoxicated by cannabis appear to compensate for their impairment by taking fewer risks and driving more slowly” This however, has ‘does not appear to be’, ‘this may be because’ – seems vague to me. Also no mention of amounts taken, but people read this and feel justified in having ” a puff”/ 5 single skinned joints

The question is

One question is.

Fair enough. I suppose my opinion is coloured by my experience. I am a terrible driver, I don’t pay attention, act impulsively, take risks.
With a joint inside me i’m super safe and attentive and just don’t get het up and angry with other drivers. It’s just a shame that I can’t smoke driving anymore as since I gave up tobacco I smoke a pipe and it needs both hands so I can’t steer.

As scotroutes says “I seem to recall the same said about alcohol.”

Back in the 70’s my father would occasionally go out drinking and then drive home after 7 or so pints, to be heard saying ” but, I’ll be extra careful and drive slowly. Also, he’s nearly 80 and never had an accident, ipso facto anything goes.

tjagain – Member
Gauss – cannabis impairs psychomotor skills and the drivers know this, concentrate harder and drive slower. However this is in controlled testing. The question is in the real world do they always compensate in this way?

Aye, it’s this latter bit I was thinking about earlier – is it a valid conclusion if the subjects know they are being tested? Difficult one 🙂

Back in the 70’s my father would occasionally go out drinking and then drive home after 7 or so pints, to be heard saying ” but, I’ll be extra careful and drive slowly. Also, he’s nearly 80 and never had an accident, ipso facto anything goes.

Done it myself. 😳

Never once had an accident when intoxicated either and a couple when I wasn’t. I can only conclude I rode better when drunk…

I can only conclude I rode better when drunk…

But I presume you drove sober more often!?! I know you know this, but some people’s grasp of risk/probabity is very poor and statements like that I fear, can confuse many.

I’ve had absolutely shedloads of accidents, none stoned.

But I presume you drove sober more often!?! I know you know this, but some people’s grasp of risk/probabity is very poor and statements like that I fear, can confuse many.

Sorry – a smiley might have been appropriate 🙂

scotroutes – no need to apologise, but with the smiley does look better.
I believed my father took extra care and drove more slowly/carefully, if he was happy with the risk I wouldn’t have objected, but he wasn’t the only person on the roads and it was not acceptable to put other people at risk.

In answer to the original question: No. Don’t do it.

I have driven stoned on a couple of (historic) occasions; The thing is that when you’re stoned you are not in a situation to objectively judge whether you are a liability.

A few blasts on a half decent spliff is insufficient to make you feel like a threat, yet enough to make you one.

I’ve lost friends to stoned driving (as in ‘DEAD BUDDIES WHO I WILL NEVER SEE AGAIN’, sadly) . Thankfully none of them ever injured or killed a third party, but that’s through luck rather than judgement.

Driving under the influence of alcohol is something i can honestly say i have never done, prob due to how much i am aware that it has an affect on my motor skills and interpretation of risk, but having a joint beforehand and being able to follow page after page of tulip navigational prompts at 100+mph on the numerous co-drives i’ve navigated on is something i found easy, almost meditational as i found myself dropping into the zone so to speak.

Not that i’d attempt it these days as that was all done 16 years ago when i was in my late 20’s and pretty bloody fit and comfortable at stupid speeds but not once did i ever lose our place on the road, we did have some spectacular multiple rolls and crashes but that was due to Gary pinning it at 10/10ths everywhere…..needless to say we always had a few J’s pre-rolled just in case we had to wait a while for recovery by the team support vehicle 😉

I can confess to being an internet expert on this having watched many episodes of Police Interceptors.

It is illegal in the same way as drink driving.

From reading above, it would appear a lot of people’s thoughts/understanding is wheredrink driving was in the 70’s

Err yea… I mean no… so maybe one day….. Er, what was the question? Cookie anyone??

[video]https://youtu.be/nPlW2lkB2HM[/video]

As many of you know the German Pozilei stopped me last year. Despite having had a smoke the previous day the blood test result came back high and the state has now banned me indefinitely from driving in Germany.

Have driven many miles stoned. I was high during my driving lessons and even the instructor commented on how smooth and unrushed my driving was.

From my late teens through to my mid 20s I was more or less constantly stoned smoking in average 2-5 joints a day. However, I never drunk much and was very active with kite boarding and cycling 4-5 times a week. I used to drive lots for work and kiting and any journey over 45 mins I would have a smoke.

I guess you would have described me as a highly functioning stoner.

In the last 9 years I’ve lived in Germany and my usage has dropped dramatically. In the last nine years I can honestly say that I’ve never driven after having a smoke.

Obviously being stoned does affect you. However, it can help you to concentrate, relax and focus. Again, this will depend on the quantity of what you have smoked and how used to smoking you are.

I can imagine that if it was the first time you smoked, went a bit green and then got behind the wheel your driving would suffer.

This is a well done “experiment”
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhKze3DDXz0[/video]

An interesting example about drink driving. ( sorry I can’t find a source just my memory)

A group of bus drivers where asked to set out cones with as narrow a gap as they could get their bus thru. all passed. They then were given a pint of beer ie less than the english fail level. Half of them set the cones too narrow to put the bus thru.

this shows the difference. Alcohol makes you over confident and impairs your judgement at low levels significantly.

alpin – Member
As many of you know the German Pozilei stopped me last year. Despite having had a smoke the previous day the blood test result came back high and the state has now banned me indefinitely from driving in Germany.

Have driven many miles stoned.

Obviously being stoned does affect you. However, it can help you to concentrate, relax and focus. Again, this will depend on the quantity of what you have smoked and how used to smoking you are.

POSTED 1 HOUR AGO # REPORT-POST

Hmmm…
Glad they banned you TBH, do you drive in the UK ?

What about prescription meds, bikebouy. There are three guys in the MTB club who are periodically prescribed a cocktail for depression. When they’re on the uppers their appetite for risk rises and self preservation becomes a low priority. Judgement seem impaired and enthusiasm takes over. One is nursing broken ribs at present. I suspect/fear they are the same in their cars. I haven’t noticed dope smoking MTBers riding any worse after a joint than normally.

Thats the big elephant in the room. Prescription drugs that can affect psychomotor sills come with a really dull warning that says “can make you feel drowsy, if affected don’t drive” Rather than – “do not drive if taking these meds”

There is no doubt at all that many common prescription meds are a significant risk in driving.

From what I know I’d put it in terms of danger to others from most dangerous
High levels of alcohol
Low levers of alcohol with cannabis
Low levels of alcohol with some prescription med
Using a phone
Some prescription meds
Driving when tired
Driving after smoking cannabis

I would also add that driving when drugged up with prescription medication (or paracetamol) can slow/alter a persons reactions.

Same can be said for hormonal and pregnant woman.

Accept your point, bikebouy….

However, when the police stopped me I wasn’t stoned. I agree that people shouldn’t be driving when stoned, but the tests used do not show whether the person is high or not, just whether they have used cannabis in the last two-three months….

Yes I can drive in the uk. I can drive anywhere, except Germany. The German authorities cannot revoke my uk license…. so there.

Well, for the rest of us then.. don’t drive stoned.

TVM.

Don’t panic…. I’ve not for years.
Nor do I advocate driving high, but in the grand scheme of things it’s way down the list of things that truly impair driving, imo….

TVM?

Driving when tired is as bad as drink-driving in terms of danger levels according to a study I saw. I reckon pretty much everyone here is guilty of that. Not that I’m an advocate of any of it.

T = Ta V = Very M = Muchly.

And, for the record, I admire you for your honesty and candour. It’s seldom a trait in this world where you get so much reasoned honesty and argument. You come across as an intelligent fella, the kitesurfing I’d like to hear more about (locations and such)

And, for the record, I have nothing against those that take recreational drugs, legal or not, in the privacy of thier own home or clubs or establishments that accommodate the taking of. I do have a problem with taking those drugs into the Public domain where the vast majority of society tends to gather.

I’m nowhere near medically trained, I do know some drugs that are currently classified as illegal bring a great deal of comfort to those suffering and in pain. But I’m a puritan at heart, so I’ll always come down on the side of Science and Medical Fact and a regime that governs such.

France 24 (F), the Spanish cannabis business live now. You can do what you want with your body in Spain as long as it isn’t detrimental to others.

I drove home from the pub years ago, after three bottles of Grolsch. Very slowly! When I got home, (only five miles), I thought, ‘right, I’m not doing that again!’
I’ve only been off me tits once, when I was round a workmates place in Bath, prior to going to see Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers at the Pavilion; I don’t smoke, and Rich smoked joints all the time at work, for ‘inspiration’ (he was an artist in the studio), so he gave me a small lump to chew on.
That was early afternoon. I have, to this day, very little recollection at all of the day, virtually none of the gig, or getting home on the train.
Driving would have been absolutely out of the question, I doubt I’d have been able to even start the car, if I’d actually had one at the time.
Actually, I’m not sure I’d even been able to find the bloody car!

Smoking cannabis/hash decarboxylises Tetrahydrocannabinolic acid which is non psychoactive and is characterised by the glistening sticky trichomes that cover cannabis buds into Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol which the body can absorb through the alveoli in the lungs and thus enter the blood stream, from there it binds to the many CB2 endocannibiniod cannabis receptors throughout the body that are mainly having an effect on the immune system and hematopoietic cells (HSC stem cells – one of the so called cancer killing super cells that cannabis switches on), it also binds to CB1 in the brain that allows for release of Dopamine and is responsible for the “feel-good” factor.

Eating cannabis has an entirely different effect than smoking as the THC is absorbed through the intestines and the liver will take it’s time to metabolise THC into 11-hydroxy-THC which can be far more potent than simple THC, the process of full metabolisation can take a few hours dependant on many factors and thus it’s easy to ingest too much as an inexperienced user may think they have not taken enough and go back for a 2nd helping, Big trouble this way looms (as seen on amsterdams streets quite often) as when 11-hydroxy-THC enters the brain it does not politely knock and ask to enter as THC does but it enters the brain more akin to an out of control steam train piloted by drunken teenagers hanging from the windows shouting “PARTY……HERE WE GO…HERE WE GO….HERE WE **** GO“……….

Cannabis is fat soluble so it is transported rapidly around the body and is stored in fatty tissue reaching a peak at 3-4 days then released very slowly back into the body and the most recent study i have read showed that a 50mg dose (a pretty decent cookie/brownie edible) will take approx 30 days to fully clear out of your system – that’s not to say that you are “high” for 30 days and it will have no perceivable effect on your life but that the cannabinoids will hang around in your fatty tissue for a while, Which is extremely problematic when it comes to testing as alpin found out to his detriment.

Obviously i’ve oversimplified it as there are over 100 different cannabinoids in Cannabis each with a different effect but i hope i’ve explained why eating it can lead you down the rabbit hole aka “Alice in Wonderland”.

Driving when tired is as bad as drink-driving in terms of danger levels according to a study I saw. I reckon pretty much everyone here is guilty of that

God yes, when i used to drive trucks for a local bakery on the North Yorks run, yeah great idea that, a bolton bakery sending bread and pastries to Brays and Cruesty territories, and at 6 in the morning id see Brays trucks coming the other way on the M62 😯
So up at 3 in the morning, loaded by 5, hitting Bradford and Leeds about 6,30, Thorner then up the A1 to Knaresborough, Morrisons in Harrogate and on to York. Occasionally hit the White Rose centre on the way back,
RTB around 12 or one, or once the trafford centre was built add an hour to that. Steam out the back, fuel up and do vehicle faults report then home.
I was a living zombie. Bent tacho discs, speed limiter kicked out from under the dash were the only way i could physically do that run in a day.
Near the end before i quit i was on high amounts of pro plus. Then wizz, and id still have to pull off the MWay at Windy Hill on the way back to try and grab Z’s in the cab under the bridge.

NEVER AGAIN will i endanger myself and others and blatantly break all kinds of laws just to put food on the table. IIR number 2 had just been born so the pressure on me to earn at the time was phenomenal.

If any of you ever wondered why im a rabid socialist and IWW, read and blame the above experience

I’ve fallen asleep while riding a motorbike through Edinburgh after a night shift. I woke up just after I’d passed my junction.

I’m paranoid about driving tired now, especially as I often have customers in the van.

Using a phone
Some prescription meds
Driving when tired

Gonna have to agree to disagree here TJ. I’ve driven whilst using a phone (however you define “using”) and I’ve driven whilst tired, and only one of those two has found me being woken up at the wheel after ricocheting off the kerb. Only one of those two has had me driving with the window wound fully down in December to get me to a service station where I can stop, take a break, get some fresh air and drink coffee.

Being older and wiser I wouldn’t do either now. But driving whilst tired need to be much, much higher in your list there. I’d arguably put it above alcohol.

somafunk – Member
Smoking cannabis/hash decarboxylises Tetrahydrocannabinolic acid which is non psychoactive and is characterised by the glistening sticky trichomes that cover cannabis buds into Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol which the body can absorb through the alveoli in the lungs and thus enter the blood stream, from there it binds to the many CB2 endocannibiniod cannabis receptors throughout the body that are mainly having an effect on the immune system and hematopoietic cells (HSC stem cells – one of the so called cancer killing super cells that cannabis switches on), it also binds to CB1 in the brain that allows for release of Dopamine and is responsible for the “feel-good” factor.

Eating cannabis has an entirely different effect than smoking as the THC is absorbed through the intestines and the liver will take it’s time to metabolise THC into 11-hydroxy-THC which can be far more potent than simple THC, the process of full metabolisation can take a few hours dependant on many factors and thus it’s easy to ingest too much as an inexperienced user may think they have not taken enough and go back for a 2nd helping, Big trouble this way looms (as seen on amsterdams streets quite often) as when 11-hydroxy-THC enters the brain it does not politely knock and ask to enter as THC does but it enters the brain more akin to an out of control steam train piloted by drunken teenagers hanging from the windows shouting “PARTY……HERE WE GO…HERE WE GO….HERE WE **** GO”……….

Cannabis is fat soluble so it is transported rapidly around the body and is stored in fatty tissue reaching a peak at 3-4 days then released very slowly back into the body and the most recent study i have read showed that a 50mg dose (a pretty decent cookie/brownie edible) will take approx 30 days to fully clear out of your system – that’s not to say that you are “high” for 30 days and it will have no perceivable effect on your life but that the cannabinoids will hang around in your fatty tissue for a while, Which is extremely problematic when it comes to testing as alpin found out to his detriment.

Obviously i’ve oversimplified it as there are over 100 different cannabinoids in Cannabis each with a different effect but i hope i’ve explained why eating it can lead you down the rabbit hole aka “Alice in Wonderland”.
You say that like you know what you’re talking about Kenny.
How dare you come on here and make informed posts.

Too bad for self and others on the board.

One more question – For those that think it’s alright to smoke then drive, would you drive with a baby in the car immediately afterwards?