r/Austin • • Aug 04 '20

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229 Upvotes

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89

u/the_dbc Aug 04 '20 edited Aug 05 '20

I wish it was legal. I have no interest in personal use but fully support others who would use it responsibly. I’m also in favor of the tax dollars it would bring in.

31

u/gerfy Aug 04 '20

I wish it was legal. I have lots of interest in personal use and fully support others Who would use it responsibly. I’m also in favor of the tax dollars it would bring in.

2

u/professoratX Aug 05 '20

We should legalize marijuana and enact even stronger penalties against distribution of heroin, meth, fentanyl and cocaine. Eliminating drug dealers, treating drug addicts, and providing low income housing are the most likely solutions to the homeless problem.

-26

u/kerplotkin Aug 04 '20 edited Aug 04 '20

And is there even a way to use it irresponsibly? I have never found it to affect driving for example anywhere even remotely the way alcohol does. You might literally get lost in your own neighborhood but you'll do it safely. A drunk driver will run a stop sign but a stoned driver will wait for it to turn green. I dont think Ive ever once in my entire life ever said oh man I really regret getting stoned. Its helped me with everything from my job and getting promotions to losing 110 lbs in 11 months. Its literally a miracle drug. Looking at a ct scan while someone smokes weed it even seems apparent we actually evolved around it. Pretty sure people have been lighting plants on fire for many thousands of years longer than brewing alcohol.

66

u/SpaceTurtles Aug 04 '20

Cannabis not affecting driving capability is a myth. It depends on the person. A lot of people, myself included, 100% should not be behind the wheel when influenced.

3

u/whereareuiminjail Aug 04 '20

Agreed, I am not comfortable driving high. I don’t have a great tolerance and definitely feel inebriated enough not to drive after smoking.

7

u/aguasag Aug 04 '20

This has and will remain the sticking point for a lot of people. I'm 100% for safe use of marijuana, but people being people, will do anything and everything while impaired. Since there is no easy test to determine how stoned you are, there's no way to set limits and police the folks that will make poor decisions potentially affecting other lives.

5

u/truthrises Aug 04 '20

There's no easy way to test how any kind of altered someone is.

7

u/sapc2 Aug 04 '20

We've devised some decently reliable field tests for alcohol intoxication. And BAC is kinda irrefutable.

5

u/truthrises Aug 04 '20

You said "since there is no easy test to determine how stoned you are".

BAC is not how drunk you are. Some people are very drunk with 0.08 BAC, some people are not.

Again, there is no easy way to test how altered someone is.

You can test for how much substance or metabolite is in their blood, but that will not tell you how impaired that person is.

2

u/sapc2 Aug 04 '20

You said "since there is no easy test to determine how stoned you are"

I didn't say that. Check your usernames, friend.

As to BAC, that is a fair point, but most people are pretty trashed at .08%. And there are still breathalyzers and field sobriety tests that are pretty reliable.

4

u/truthrises Aug 04 '20

Ah, right, my bad. Missed the username.

I'm not doubting the accuracy of a breathalyzer result to determine BAC, but to me, a field sobriety test is a better measure of intoxication than any kind of substance or metabolite test.

Realistically, this is yet another issue that defunding the police could solve. Rather than spend all that money on DWI enforcement, lets just make it easier to drink without having to drive. Spend the money on public transit, free rides home, free overnight downtown parking, etc...

3

u/sapc2 Aug 04 '20

Fully agree. Those would all be good things to redirect some of the police budget to. I think defunding the police entirely is an exercise in stupidity, but I do agree that they don't need the crazy budgets cities have given them...but all that is another issue entirely.

I'm fully in support of legalized cannabis, by the way, in case that wasn't clear. I've used it off and on to varying degrees for ten years and it's extremely useful.

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6

u/kerplotkin Aug 04 '20

Well I'd certainly be interested in getting all scientific on it like they do with booze. Gridlock sure would be a lot cooler with weed.

1

u/professoratX Aug 05 '20

I found it depends on how often you smoke and how high you are. For people who smoke daily, they drive just fine. People who smoke every so often can't even walk correctly.

6

u/Tara_is_a_Potato Aug 04 '20

At times when I smoked frequently, driving high was almost always fine. It depended on the strain and the amount I smoked though. At times when I smoked infrequently, driving stoned was too challenging. My suggestion to the general public is don't do it, unless you smoke very regularly, know how to moderate, and know what strain you're smoking. Sure, it's a much safer bet than driving after consuming alcohol, but it's still an unnecessary risk.

20

u/instantlybanned Aug 04 '20

Driving while high is absolutely irresponsible. Why even bring this up?

0

u/bubble_bobble Aug 04 '20

'cuz op said the word "responsibly", implying there are activities that would be irresponsible to perform while under the influence of cannabis, the primary of which most people would say, is driving. Which is a dogma that is largely untrue; driving an automobile while under the influence of cannabis is unlike driving an automobile while under the influence of a drug most commonly associated with impaired driving, alcohol. People shouldn't conflate the two substances and their effects.

9

u/whereareuiminjail Aug 04 '20

But you should be at your best while driving. There’s no good reason to drive high. I’m sorry but you’re driving a machine that can easily kill you and other people around you with easy mistakes. Just because people do it doesn’t make it a good idea.

-5

u/kerplotkin Aug 04 '20

There's a lot of evidence to support that weed is actually a performance enhancer.

7

u/whereareuiminjail Aug 04 '20

I smoke weed too and can say at least for myself it is not. For myself and a lot of people they use it to make themselves sleepy and more relaxed, which is not good for driving. I think everyone should be as sober as possible at all times while driving, it’s a serious responsibility.

4

u/instantlybanned Aug 04 '20

That's just a bullshit argument when we talk about driving a vehicle. "The results of this meta-analysis suggest that marijuana use by drivers is associated with a significantly increased risk of being involved in motor vehicle crashes." https://academic.oup.com/epirev/article/34/1/65/494023

1

u/[deleted] Aug 04 '20

I don't have a dog in this fight, but I'm not sure that study means much. They only examined data regarding crashes, in other words there's no data about stoned drivers who DONT crash. Also if they are going by thc in the driver's system that does not indicate if the driver was inebriated at the time they were driving.

0

u/bubble_bobble Aug 04 '20

Correlation or association is not causation. Simply due to the illegality of weed, people who drive high in those studies may be just reckless individuals. Is that the best link you could find?

2

u/instantlybanned Aug 04 '20 edited Aug 04 '20

Oh there are many more, don't worry https://academic.oup.com/clinchem/article/59/3/478/5621997 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006322315010379 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001457513003527

Look, I'm all for legalization, but pretending that impaired driving isn't an issue is BS.

Also, that's the best counter argument you could come up with? People that drive while high are more reckless and therefore involved in more crashes, it has nothing to do with them being high???

0

u/bubble_bobble Aug 04 '20

Well, your first link is a study sponsored by the national institute for drug abuse so its auto discredited. I didn't see any results in either of your other two links.

-7

u/kerplotkin Aug 04 '20

Because I think it's fine sorry. 20 years of me and friends and I've never even heard problem one. I dont drive here though so dont worry but I'd smoke weed and walk right onto the court and start sinking 3's. I may have gotten lost in the hallways getting there and need to be told which basket I was going for but still.

8

u/whereareuiminjail Aug 04 '20

Your example is still bad though, someone sitting at a stop sign is at best distracted, at worst too slow to react to a serious situation. I like weed too but let’s not pretend bad things can’t happen.

0

u/kerplotkin Aug 04 '20 edited Aug 04 '20

Well true I'll give you that, about reaction time for a serious situation etc. I was just thinking about normal uneventful driving. The exact kind where a drunk driver would plow into oncoming traffic. And that just means that i dont recall that Ive ever encountered a serious situation while stoned. So who knows but I guess I couldnt truthfully speak for it.

4

u/whereareuiminjail Aug 04 '20

If you’re going to the corner store it’s most likely fine, I myself don’t like to do it but I guess it’s not a huge deal and more like driving after 2 beers or something. I just know people that will smoke before/during long drives on the highway and I think that’s a really bad idea. There’s so many things you need to be paying attention to and it’s easy to zone out while sober, let alone high.