Geez, do you folks even visit these sites/links you provide or just assume no one else will?
Needless to say, I was a bit skeptical about links on a web site/organization created by two people named Earth and Fire Erowid (I guess "Wind" rebelled and went establishment on them) I could smell the incense from here
- anyway my .02 on what I read so far:- The first link is to a study that is quite simply a joke. It readily admits to being highly subjective and in fact used subjects who are "heavy to very heavy" MJ users. Gee no concerns about bias there. Yet even so, I saw nowhere that it said or implied that the impairment of pot is "negligible." It also says "Evidence is presented which suggests that marijuana produces periodic attentional lapses." (Note - it does state that pot and alcohol are totally different drugs, but again freakin duh, I would hope that merely states the obvious (and in fact works against the "well alcohol is a drug too and it's legal so pot should be legal" argument)).
- I kinda doubt I'll ever read the whole 110 pages of the 2d one, but did notice the following:
-- the subjects were also regular MJ users and so much more likely to provide biased feedback on any test that was even slightly subjective.
-- re. the driving test: "...they were unable to control their steering as well when under the influence of the high cannabis dose. This again confirms previous observations that cannabis adversely affects drivers’ tracking ability." They don't get too specific on how much though. They do later talk about some effects being minor, but also admit numerous times to a large degree of variability in the results....
-- This part actually appears to show an interesting similarity w/booze: "cannabis, in a similar way to alcohol at low doses,can have a stimulant effect on dopamine that may account for more risky behaviour in some circumstances."
-- also "Alcohol may, therefore, be seen as first disturbing higher cognitive processes, especially those that require integrative performances. Compared to those effects, the losses in psycho-motor skills and simple attentional processes are much smaller. In contrast, previous studies with cannabis show that it first seems to affect all tasks requiring psycho-motor skills and continuous attention. Thus, tracking tasks, which are very sensitive to short term changes in attention, are very sensitive to cannabis impairment." This doesn't seem to be exactly agreeing with your "negligible" comments either.
-- Further, generally, driving around in a simulator where you know and have heightened awareness for thing to happen and react to is far different than actually being on the road, tunes cranked up, etc. Again not saying the simulator is totally invalid by any means, just worth noting IMO.
- From the 3d link two things stood out offhand:
-- "It is difficult to see how cannabis intoxication could be monitored, if its use were permitted. There could be no equivalent of the breathalyser for alcohol, since small amounts of cannabis continue to be released from fat into the blood long after any short-term impairment has worn off (see paragraph 3.5 above)."
-- "A single dose of cannabis for an inexperienced user, or an over*dose for an habitual user, can sometimes induce a variety of intensely unpleasant psychic effects including anxiety, panic, paranoia and feelings of impending doom..." oh yeah I want these people on the road.
This is as far as I got on links at gratefuldead.com ooops I mean erowid.com.
In the case of pot, yes, pretty much.
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