Pot-Positive Traffic Fatalities Up 100% in Colorado?

a reply to: stirling

High functioning autistic over here who was prescribed it medicinally and it made a world of change. Tired of being compared to drunks and users of real bad substances.

a reply to: xuenchen

An absolute joke of a thread.

a reply to: xuenchen

Don't smoke and drive! What's wrong with these people.

originally posted by: Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
One thing to remember that the media will almost always leave out:

Marijuana metabolites stay in your system for a month, sometimes longer. However, marijuana itself, the effects only last a few hours.

Thus, it is totally possible to test positive for weed even if you aren't high, and haven't smoked it in a while. Testing positive for marijuana does not mean that you are under the influence, only that you have smoked it sometime within the last few weeks.

This is false. Some tests only detect recent use, within a few hours. What test was performed is critical information.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04

originally posted by: Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
One thing to remember that the media will almost always leave out:

Marijuana metabolites stay in your system for a month, sometimes longer. However, marijuana itself, the effects only last a few hours.

Thus, it is totally possible to test positive for weed even if you aren't high, and haven't smoked it in a while. Testing positive for marijuana does not mean that you are under the influence, only that you have smoked it sometime within the last few weeks.

This is false. Some tests only detect recent use, within a few hours. What test was performed is critical information.

What tests are those that can distinguish being currently under the influence, and having used previously?

Blood Test can detect thc 12-24 hrs
Saliva Drug Testing which is fairly new and mostly used for employment purposes. it take only a few minutes for results.
it is suppose to be able to tell from time of consumption to 6 hr some reports up to one day.

the way i understand it they measure nanograms per milliliter , here is a little more info.

What is the threshold for considering a driver to be impaired by marijuana? It is unclear what blood level of THC (the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana) constitutes actual impairment. Most credible scientists working on the issue acknowledge the difficulty of pegging THC impairment to a number (in a way similar to drunk driving laws), and epidemiological evidence on the risk of accidents associated with marijuana is much less conclusive than data regarding alcohol.
The most meaningful recent study measuring driver "culpability" (i.e., who is at fault) in 3,400 crashes over a 10-year period indicated that drivers with THC concentrations of less than five ng/mL in their blood have a crash risk no higher than that of drug-free users.2 The crash risk begins to rise above the risk for sober drivers when a marijuana user's THC concentrations in whole blood3 reach five to 10 ng/mL.
How long does it take for the psychoactive effects of marijuana to wear off?
Because smoked THC is rapidly transferred into the blood stream, THC levels in the blood rise quickly immediately after inhalation. Depending on the dose, THC typically reaches peak concentrations of more than 100 ng/mL five to 10 minutes after inhalation and then rapidly decreases to between one and four ng/mL within three to four hours.
However, heavy marijuana users’ blood can contain detectable amounts of THC even after periods of abstention. In one controlled study, six of 25 participants tested positive for active levels of THC after a full seven days of abstention, with the highest concentration detected being three ng/ml of whole blood.4 In addition, the blood serum of heavy to moderate users may contain more than two ng/mL of THC at 24 or even 48 hours after smoking a single joint, a level that studies have shown does not produce impairment.5

Marijuana and DUI Laws: How Can We Best Guard Against Impaired Driving?

also from the same link as above.

Because of the invasiveness of blood tests and the inadequacy of urine tests in determining impairment on the roadside (i.e., actual THC levels), police officials hope to institute roadside saliva testing in the near future. However, the technology for reliably testing saliva is still unavailable, and there are no national standards for testing saliva, as there are with blood and urine.
Significant work is being done to develop and implement modified field sobriety tests, which measure the behavior of drivers (reaction time, for example), rather than their bodily fluids.
MPP recommends a policy similar to most state laws on driving under the influence of alcohol: A driver who fails a roadside sobriety test should be required to submit to a blood test by a trained medical professional — or risk criminal and administrative sanctions. However, given the length of time after impairment THC can stay in a person’s system, no conviction for driving under the influence of marijuana should be based on a per se limit.

so i figure before long the will have a thc blood level , just like blood alcohol level. so if you like to smoke remember this.

a couple more links.
PYDT Saliva Drug Testing FAQ

California NORML Guide Interpreting Drug Test Results

originally posted by: Skadi_the_Evil_Elf

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04

originally posted by: Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
One thing to remember that the media will almost always leave out:

Marijuana metabolites stay in your system for a month, sometimes longer. However, marijuana itself, the effects only last a few hours.

Thus, it is totally possible to test positive for weed even if you aren't high, and haven't smoked it in a while. Testing positive for marijuana does not mean that you are under the influence, only that you have smoked it sometime within the last few weeks.

This is false. Some tests only detect recent use, within a few hours. What test was performed is critical information.

What tests are those that can distinguish being currently under the influence, and having used previously?

Urinalysis detects metabolites. The blood screen does not (it detects both metabolites and pure drug and you can simply not look for metabolites so only Pure drug yeilds a +), and for most people it only yields a + result within a few hours of use.


It's possible in long term, heavy users that a very sensitive test would yield a + result for 1 to 2 days, but you would have to calibrate it for that.

There is also a breath test being worked on, and there is a saliva test that yields a + for active drug components only 12-72 hours after use depending on sensitivity (so you can only screen for 12 hours or less if you choose).

a reply to: hounddoghowlie

MPP recommends a policy similar to most state laws on driving under the influence of alcohol: A driver who fails a roadside sobriety test should be required to submit to a blood test

HA!

I love that idea!

Have the cop light up some incense and play some groovy music then offer the driver some cookies and brownies and just like rap with the dude, man, you know? Just to like see if he's like hip, cool and totally far out. See what sign he is too. Then show him some scenes from a Cheech and Chong movie and see if the dude laughs.

a reply to: buster2010

I haven't seen it,what I HAVE seen are idiots with long gaps in traffic or worse JUST SITTING at a green light screwing with their damn phone. People who drive SLOW and of course the LEMANS drivers who cut through traffic,