Pubdate: Sun, 12 Jun 2016
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2016 The Arizona Republic
Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: Chris Peterson
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v16/n397/a01.html

A HAZY LOOK AT FATALITIES THAT ARE POT-RELATED

The My Turn writer's article concerning marijauna (June 6) was 
unfortunately a bit dishonest, coming from a supposedly scientific background.

The impression left is that marijauna is causing more traffic deaths 
in, for example, Colorado, since more people involved in accidents 
are testing positive for marijauna. It would therefore be honest for 
the writer to point out that the metabolites of marijauna can be 
detected in the blood of a person for at least several days after 
use, up to several weeks.

That of course is why the proponents of legalization here point out 
that detectable residual metabolites has nothing necessarily to do 
with driving impairment, and therefore a far fairer and more 
meaningful system is a field sobriety test, as commonly used in 
testing for alcohol impairment.

It would also have been more honest of the writer to point out that 
in Colorado the actual number of driving fatalities was lower in 2014 
than 2013, the most recent figures I was able to draw off the 
internet, with the reasonable expectation that more metabolites will 
show up in blood tests, given the plants legal status there.

Chris Peterson - Phoenix
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom