Cannabis and Driving

Science/France: Largest study ever conducted on cannabis and driving found only low increased accident risk for cannabis

Drivers under the influence of cannabis are far less likely to be culpable in traffic accidents than drunk drivers. According to the newspaper "Libération" the results of an epidemiological study with approximately 8,000 accidents will be published in several weeks in the British Medical Journal.

Researchers at the French National Institute for Research on Transportation and Safety found that alcohol intoxication and speeding were nearly ten times more likely to be an attributing factor in traffic fatalities than the use of cannabis. Overall, researchers estimated that cannabis' psychomotor impairment was similar to that exhibited by drivers with blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) ranging from 0.02 to 0.05 per cent. The relative risk for causing a fatal accident was 1.8-2.2 for cannabis, similar to that for alcohol below a BAC of 0.05. It was about 20 for alcohol above a BAC of 0.05 and speeding.

The study results have been provoking the greatest embarrassment among government officials since they always claimed that "drugs behind the wheel are responsible for more deaths than speeding." Under French law, drivers who test positive for even trace levels of THC in their blood face up to two years in prison.

(Source: Libération of 3 October 2005)

(More at the IACM-Bulletin archives: http://www.cannabis- med.org/)

International Association for Cannabis as Medicine (IACM) Rueckertstrasse 4
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Email: info@cannabis-med.org
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URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~keelr/pot_drive.htm
Owner: Robert O. Keel: rok@umsl.edu
Last Updated: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 2:37 PM