Marijuana, alcohol impairment compared

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Smoking pot doubles car accident risk

Smoking marijuana a couple of hours before you drive almost doubles your chances of having a serious car crash, say Canadian researchers.

The study led by Associate Professor Mark Asbridge from Dalhousie University in Halifax, is the first to review of data from drivers who had been treated for serious injuries or died in car accidents.

"To our knowledge this meta-analysis is the first to examine the association between acute cannabis use and the risk of motor vehicle collisions in real life," the researchers write in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal.

The researchers reviewed nine observational studies with a total sample of 49,411 accident victims. To rule out the effects of alcohol or other drugs the researchers calculated the odds for cases where cannabis — but no alcohol or other drugs — was detected in blood test or the driver had reported smoking three hours before crash.

They found that smoking cannabis three hours before driving nearly doubled a driver's risk of having a motor vehicle accident.

But the level of tetrahydrocannabionol (THC) — the active compound in marijauna — in the blood that leads to impairment is unclear as most of the studies just measured for the presence of THC in the blood.

Only three of the studies reviewed measured precise THC levels in blood, which showed a positive relationship between THC concentrations and crash risk. But the researchers of this latest study say more evidence is needed to establish what level of THC causes impairment.

"Although we did not examine dose effects on the risk and severity of collisions, studies of fatally injured drivers found higher amounts of tetrahyrocannabinol in the blood," they write, adding that this either indicates heavier consumption of THC or shorter timeframe between consumption and testing.

The findings back up previous experimental studies that show cannabis impairs motor skills important for safe driving and increases the chance of collisions.

The researchers say more work is needed to show whether cannabis smoking is a contributing factor for minor collisions.

"[TCH] concentrations might also be important, with minor collisions more likely than fatal collisions to involve drivers with lower concentrations of cannabis," they write.

While alcohol remains the substance most often involved in crashes, the researchers hope their work can inform public health campaigns and policies to control drug use and driving.

National data collected in 2004 suggested that four per cent of Canadian adults reported driving within an hour of using pot, the researchers said.

Road side testing

"The level of impairment might not be as severe as alcohol intoxication, but it's there and it does require a public health response," says Professor Wayne Hall from the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research.

But it is unclear whether road side drug testing is effective, argues Hall in a separate commentary in the BMJ.

"We've implemented this policy in most states and territories [in Australia] and there just doesn't seem to be the commitment to finding out whether this has been effective or not," he says.

The problem, argues Hall, is that roadside drug testing has been modelled on the success of random breath testing, but hasn't been evaluated or implemented with the same rigour.

"We don't really know if that's worked and there are very important differences in which road side drug testing has been done compared with random breath testing," he says.

While it is relatively easy to measure blood alcohol levels using a breath test, it is much harder to gauge impairment from concentrations of THC in the saliva, so governments use 'zero tolerance' to define impairment, he says.

"They've [governments] simplified it in a sense and avoided the issue of what the level [where driving is impaired] might be."

The other issue is that road side testing hasn't been as widely implemented or as well publicized as random breath testing, he says.

"I think we need to look at the extent to which people who use cannabis are deterred from driving when they use cannabis. Are they fearful of being detected? Is this a realistic deterrent?

"We need to do similar things with cannabis [that we did with random breath testing], and probably focus more on younger drivers because that's where use is likely to be highest."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/02/10/marijuana-driving-collisions.html

[Obama 2012 1,714]

9 studies, non-conclusive except for 2 in which it was found not to be an impairment. They added the other 7 together and decided there was an impairment. So there has never been a singular conclusive study that verifies what they are trying to say....

Also they would rather drivers go out while they are fully stoned a few minutes after smoking than once it has worn off ( 2-3 hours later ,), when they are at risk because they are MAYBE wired (though doubtful) A bit confused on this one and their logic.

The articles related to this study are hilarious. They even say they really don't have much of a clue because the studies only found traces of THC in their blood. So really it could have been 6 hours after smoking ( THC stays in your system depending on the person 4 - 8 hours after smoking, though by-products stay in a lot longer) when these were recorded in the blood stream.

As this article says though regardless alcohol is much worse than cannibas and yet guess what, that's legal...

[웃 910]

I call bullshnit

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Marijuana Use Affects Blood Flow In Brain Even After Abstinence

ScienceDaily (Feb. 11, 2005) — ST. PAUL, Minn. – People who smoked marijuana had changes in the blood flow in their brains even after a month of not smoking, according to a study published in the February 8 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The findings could explain in part the problems with thinking or remembering found in other studies of marijuana users, according to study authors Ronald Herning, PhD, and Jean Lud Cadet, MD, of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore, Md.

The study involved 54 marijuana users and 18 control subjects. The marijuana users volunteered to take part in a month-long inpatient program. The blood flow velocity in brain arteries was tested with transcranial Doppler sonography in all participants at the beginning of the study and again at the end of the month for the marijuana users.

The blood flow velocity was significantly higher in the marijuana users than in the control subjects, both at the beginning of the study and after a month of abstinence from marijuana use. The marijuana users also had higher values on the pulsatility index (PI), which measures the amount of resistance to blood flow. This is thought to be due to narrowing of the blood vessels that occurs when the circulation system's ability to regulate itself is impaired.

"The marijuana users had PI values that were somewhat higher than those of people with chronic high blood pressure and diabetes," Herning said. "However, their values were lower than those of people with dementia. This suggests that marijuana use leads to abnormalities in the small blood vessels in the brain, because similar PI values have been seen in other diseases that affect the small blood vessels."

The PI values for light and moderate marijuana users improved over the month of abstinence. There was no improvement for heavy marijuana users. The light users smoked two to 15 joints per week. The moderate users smoked 17 to 70 joints per week, and the heavy users smoked 78 to 350 joints per week.

---

The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 18,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to improving patient care through education and research. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as stroke, Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis.

For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit its Website at http://www.aan.com.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050211084701.htm

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Testicular Cancer Risk Increased in Marijuana Users

February 11, 2009 — An association between the use of marijuana and an increased risk for testicular cancer, in particular the most aggressive nonseminoma type of the disease, has been reported in paper published online February 9 in Cancer.

The risk for testicular cancer increased by 70% in men who reported current marijuana use, and increased even more in those who smoked marijuana at least weekly and/or had long-term exposure to the drug, starting in adolescence.

"Our study is the first inkling that marijuana use may be associated with testicular cancer," said senior author Stephen Schwartz, MPH, PhD, epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in Seattle, Washington. However, he noted that there are still many unanswered questions, including why the increased risk is seen in only 1 type of testicular cancer.

The finding is interesting and statistically significant, but the confidence intervals (CI) are fairly large, and this study is not conclusive, said Len Lichtenfeld, MD, deputy chief medical officer at the American Cancer Society. "It does not prove a causal relationship," he told Medscape Oncology in an interview.

Increase in Incidence Over Past Few Decades

The incidence of testicular cancer has been increasing by around 3% to 6% each year since the 1950s in countries such as the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, the researchers note.

Over the same time period, there has been an increase in the use of marijuana in North America, Europe, and Australia. Because chronic marijuana use has multiple adverse effects on the endocrine and reproductive health systems, the researchers wondered whether it could be related to the increase seen in testicular cancer rates.

To test the hypothesis, researchers conducted a population-based case–control study of 369 men with testicular cancer (aged 18–44 years) and 979 age-matched controls. Information on marijuana use, cigarette smoking, and alcohol use was collected from interviews, which were conducted in person.

However, the researchers point out that one of the limitations of their study is that these interviews were actually conducted in only 67.5% of the eligible cases and in 52.2% of the eligible controls. In addition, they had to rely on self-reporting, and "patients with cancer may be expected to more accurately admit to the use of an illegal substance than individuals in a control group," the researchers comment.

The results must be interpreted in light of these limitations, they caution.

Risk of Cancer Increased by 70%

Current marijuana use was associated with a 70% increased risk for testicular cancer (odds ratio [OR], 1.7; 95% CI, 1.1–2.5). The risk was particularly elevated for current use that was at least weekly (OR, 3.0) or that began in adolescence (OR, 2.8 for boys who were younger than 18 when they started).

These associations were independent of known risk factors for testicular cancer, such as a first-degree family history and a history of undescended testes.

"In addition, all of the associations we observed appeared to be limited to nonseminoma/mixed histologies," the researchers report.

Why this should be the case is unclear. "Our original hypothesis sought an increasing exposure that would be associated with the risk of all histologic types of testicular cancer," they write.

Particularly Vulnerable at Puberty?

One of the potential explanations for the association rests on the theory that puberty presents a "window of vulnerability," during which environmental factors increase the risk for testicular cancer. The disease is thought to arise from primitive germ cells that fail to develop properly and become vulnerable to malignancy, especially during the hormonal surges of puberty.

"Just as thechanging hormonal environment of adolescence and adulthood can trigger undifferentiated fetal germ cells to become cancerous, it has been suggested that puberty is a 'window of opportunity,' during which lifestyle or environmental factors also can increase the risk of testicular cancer," commented first author Janet Daling, PhD, also an epidemiologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

"This is consistent with the study's findings that the elevated risk of nonseminoma-type testicular cancer, in particular, was associated with marijuana use prior to age 18," she said in a statement.

"However, none of these explanations likely would be specific to nonseminomas," the researchers note.

One of the most intriguing things about this study, from a human interest point of view, is the reason the researchers decided to look for an association between testicular cancer and the use of marijuana, commented Dr. Lichtenfeld.

According to a press release issued by the Fred Hutchinson center, the idea was conceived by Dr. Daling after she heard a lecture 8 years ago that highlighted the fact that the brain and the testes were the only 2 organs in the body found to have receptors for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive component of marijuana. However, since then, these receptors have been found in the heart, uterus, spleen, and certain immune system cells.

The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health and by institutional funds from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The researchers have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/588135

[luckytxn 2,265]

Smoking pot doubles car accident risk

Smoking marijuana a couple of hours before you drive almost doubles your chances of having a serious car crash, say Canadian researchers.

The study led by Associate Professor Mark Asbridge from Dalhousie University in Halifax, is the first to review of data from drivers who had been treated for serious injuries or died in car accidents.

"To our knowledge this meta-analysis is the first to examine the association between acute cannabis use and the risk of motor vehicle collisions in real life," the researchers write in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal.

The researchers reviewed nine observational studies with a total sample of 49,411 accident victims. To rule out the effects of alcohol or other drugs the researchers calculated the odds for cases where cannabis — but no alcohol or other drugs — was detected in blood test or the driver had reported smoking three hours before crash.

They found that smoking cannabis three hours before driving nearly doubled a driver's risk of having a motor vehicle accident.

But the level of tetrahydrocannabionol (THC) — the active compound in marijauna — in the blood that leads to impairment is unclear as most of the studies just measured for the presence of THC in the blood.

Only three of the studies reviewed measured precise THC levels in blood, which showed a positive relationship between THC concentrations and crash risk. But the researchers of this latest study say more evidence is needed to establish what level of THC causes impairment.

"Although we did not examine dose effects on the risk and severity of collisions, studies of fatally injured drivers found higher amounts of tetrahyrocannabinol in the blood," they write, adding that this either indicates heavier consumption of THC or shorter timeframe between consumption and testing.

The findings back up previous experimental studies that show cannabis impairs motor skills important for safe driving and increases the chance of collisions.

The researchers say more work is needed to show whether cannabis smoking is a contributing factor for minor collisions.

"[TCH] concentrations might also be important, with minor collisions more likely than fatal collisions to involve drivers with lower concentrations of cannabis," they write.

While alcohol remains the substance most often involved in crashes, the researchers hope their work can inform public health campaigns and policies to control drug use and driving.

National data collected in 2004 suggested that four per cent of Canadian adults reported driving within an hour of using pot, the researchers said.

Road side testing

"The level of impairment might not be as severe as alcohol intoxication, but it's there and it does require a public health response," says Professor Wayne Hall from the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research.

But it is unclear whether road side drug testing is effective, argues Hall in a separate commentary in the BMJ.

"We've implemented this policy in most states and territories [in Australia] and there just doesn't seem to be the commitment to finding out whether this has been effective or not," he says.

The problem, argues Hall, is that roadside drug testing has been modelled on the success of random breath testing, but hasn't been evaluated or implemented with the same rigour.

"We don't really know if that's worked and there are very important differences in which road side drug testing has been done compared with random breath testing," he says.

While it is relatively easy to measure blood alcohol levels using a breath test, it is much harder to gauge impairment from concentrations of THC in the saliva, so governments use 'zero tolerance' to define impairment, he says.

"They've [governments] simplified it in a sense and avoided the issue of what the level [where driving is impaired] might be."

The other issue is that road side testing hasn't been as widely implemented or as well publicized as random breath testing, he says.

"I think we need to look at the extent to which people who use cannabis are deterred from driving when they use cannabis. Are they fearful of being detected? Is this a realistic deterrent?

"We need to do similar things with cannabis [that we did with random breath testing], and probably focus more on younger drivers because that's where use is likely to be highest."

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...collisions.html

You're a real downer.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

You're a real downer.

I live in an area with lots of "medicinal" marijuana dispensaries, and when the weather warms up, and the windows are rolled down, you can get a contact high just driving around the neighborhood. One of my most favorite things in the world, is to come up behind some lone hippie car at a 4-way stop, waiting the last five minutes for the sign to turn from red to green, and lay on the horn, knowing I just busted him and ruined his high.

We have the vampires as well, the ones that stay up all night, sleep all day, and don't come back out until the sun is about to go down. They are smoking something else, but it ain't anything nature grew. Then there are the parked cars where the heads keep going up and down. Hard to tell if they are exchanging oral sex, or packing their noses.

I find that if I just drive during normal business hours, I can avoid all that weirdness. I try to leave around 8:30 am, and be back by 3:30. That is, when I am not driving the wife around. She always seems to need a ride when traffic is at its worst, or the drunks and zombies are at their most dangerous.

[luckytxn 2,265]

I live in an area with lots of "medicinal" marijuana dispensaries, and when the weather warms up, and the windows are rolled down, you can get a contact high just driving around the neighborhood. One of my most favorite things in the world, is to come up behind some lone hippie car at a 4-way stop, waiting the last five minutes for the sign to turn from red to green, and lay on the horn, knowing I just busted him and ruined his high.

We have the vampires as well, the ones that stay up all night, sleep all day, and don't come back out until the sun is about to go down. They are smoking something else, but it ain't anything nature grew. Then there are the parked cars where the heads keep going up and down. Hard to tell if they are exchanging oral sex, or packing their noses.

I find that if I just drive during normal business hours, I can avoid all that weirdness. I try to leave around 8:30 am, and be back by 3:30. That is, when I am not driving the wife around. She always seems to need a ride when traffic is at its worst, or the drunks and zombies are at their most dangerous.

Nice area.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Nice area.

It is. Really. Tourists love it.

[웃 910]

I live in an area with lots of "medicinal" marijuana dispensaries, and when the weather warms up, and the windows are rolled down, you can get a contact high just driving around the neighborhood. One of my most favorite things in the world, is to come up behind some lone hippie car at a 4-way stop, waiting the last five minutes for the sign to turn from red to green, and lay on the horn, knowing I just busted him and ruined his high.

We have the vampires as well, the ones that stay up all night, sleep all day, and don't come back out until the sun is about to go down. They are smoking something else, but it ain't anything nature grew. Then there are the parked cars where the heads keep going up and down. Hard to tell if they are exchanging oral sex, or packing their noses.

I find that if I just drive during normal business hours, I can avoid all that weirdness. I try to leave around 8:30 am, and be back by 3:30. That is, when I am not driving the wife around. She always seems to need a ride when traffic is at its worst, or the drunks and zombies are at their most dangerous.

Sounds like a fantastic lifestyle, if done in moderation.

You should take a puff or two sometime. It will loosen you up.

Edited February 16, 2012 by ☠

[luckytxn 2,265]

It is. Really. Tourists love it.

That's all that matters then.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Sounds like a fantastic lifestyle, if done in moderation.

You should take a puff or two sometime. It will loosen you up.

Been there, done that, grew up.

[luckytxn 2,265]

Been there, done that, grew up.

Ouch.