Pubdate: Sun, 14 Dec 2008
Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright: 2008 Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.edmontonsun.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135
Author: Russell Barth
Note: Parenthetical remark by the Sun editor, headline by newshawk.

MAJOR THREAT NOT SUPPORTED BY SCIENCE

RE: "It's not just about driving drunk," Dec. 12. The police's 
assertions that marijuana is a major threat to road safety is simply 
not supported by science or numbers. Sure, pot can impair some 
people, but it doesn't impair every user, and it doesn't impair every 
time. A cellphone, coffee, smokes or food in-hand ... loud 
passengers, rowdy pets, old age, medications, inexperience and plain 
old stupidity can sometimes impair people far more than a pot high 
will, so singling out pot users is arbitrary and discriminatory. And 
that was their whole point: pot can remain in your body for months 
after the last puff (much like being charged for drunk driving five 
days after a sip of wine), so it should be easy enough to get a 
conviction because any positive test is immediately considered 
"impairment". Canadians smoke more pot than any other country in the 
world, we use the most potent pot and we admit to toking and driving 
more than any other country. Why are we not seeing four or even five 
times as many crashes? Because, like everything police say about 
marijuana, it is all just a lot of hype.

Russell Barth

(Pot isn't booze. But driving stoned is risky and stupid.)
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom