A new study financed by three different government agencies may further divide the United States on the negative and positive impact on society on the use of marijuana. The research appears to confuse, rather than enlighten, on the issue of cannabis use, notes Motley Fool.
One weakness of the study, to begin with, is that it had only 19 adult volunteers as respondents. The 19 used a driving simulator to test the effect of vaporized weed, alcohol or placebo on how the drivers kept within their lane and follow speed limit.
The 45-minute driving sessions, held in a driving simulator in Iowa City, used a 1996 Malibu sedan mounted in a dome with a motion system. The volunteers experienced speeding up, stopping, steering cues, maneuvering on different road conditions such as gravel and hearing realistic sounds while driving, notes CNN.
The study, funded, by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, allowed the volunteers a peak breath alcohol concentration of 0.065 percent and THC concentration of 13.1 micrograms per liter. Some of the drivers used marijuana at least twice but not more than thrice a week.
Drunk drivers and not high volunteers were the ones who often left their lanes and speed up while weaving in traffic, the research found. But cannabis use also caused the volunteers to have reduced vision and higher incidents of intra-lane weaving, similar to the practices of drunk driving.
The conclusion was the alcohol and weed impairs a driver's abilities, but the impairment is greater on drunk than high volunteers. But since THC concentration goes down fast during the period needed in the U.S. to collect blood specimen which is two to four hours and oral tests using saliva is not a precise instrument to measure impairment, the study also admits testing cannabis levels that accurately reflects driving impairment is still elusive.
Since the nation has a lot of researches that confirm the adverse effects of marijuana - although there are also studies that provides evidence of cannabis's medical value - but "a relatively short history highlighting its benefits," Motley Fool sees years before legislation is passed by Congress in favor of marijuana legislation across the U.S.