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A significant proportion of people who smoke marijuana have a rather blasé attitude towards driving, surveys showing that many users are convinced that the drug does not affect their ability to drive safely.
According to a new Canadian study, using pot before driving increases the risk of an accident even five hours after inhalation.
Researchers at McGill University found that performance in key areas such as reaction time had dropped significantly and that effects had lasted up to five hours after inhalation of the drug. equivalent of a typical articulation.
Simple driving tasks were largely unaffected, but once the situation became complicated with normal distractions, it was when the wheels began to yield, according to the document published in CMAJ Open on Monday, two days before the ban on recreational marijuana was lifted.
The Canadian Automobile Association, whose polls have revealed that a millennium (18 to 34 years) are convinced that they can drive as well – or better – as saggy as sober, funded the research.
With the legalization of recreational grass, "young adults, who are already at risk of a car accident, can increase their cannabis use, which can further increase the risk of an accident," write the authors in CMAJ Open.
So far, the question of whether people could consume any amount of cannabis before driving safely was controversial.
Some studies have shown that alcohol is more harmful to the consumer than cannabis, but some studies have shown that cannabis can have various effects on driving, including increased drug use, increased frequency of weaving in the corridors and a distorted perception of time.
Less clear was how long the effects could last.
When we drive, we must be prepared to react to unforeseen situations. The ability to respond to new, more complex tasks has been changed
The McGill study involved 45 recreational users aged 18 to 24 years. All have used cannabis at least once a week in the last three months, but not more than four times a week.
Each of the four trials was completed – without cannabis and one, three and five hours after inhalation of a standard 100 mg dose of weed. They were tested on driving simulators and on a computerized test measuring, among others, the divided attention, the speed with which a person can detect an object at the periphery and the distractibility. After using a jar, participants were also asked about their confidence in their ability to drive and drive safely.
The answers to the simulator's simplest tasks (braking, steering, speed control on one lane) showed no significant difference in performance after pot use, the authors report. Whatever the performance of driving "- for example, a car in front of a sudden crash or a child crossing the street – was affected at any time after cannabis use", the risk of collision having been multiplied by two or more.
In this archival photo of July 12, 2018, newly transplanted cannabis cuttings grow in uncultivated earthen pots in pots at the Sira Naturals Medical Marijuana Grow Center in Milford, Massachusetts.
Steven Senne / AP Photo
"In no case did the absence of cannabis lead to a greater risk of collision than this, except for the measure of vigilance, for which participants were twice as likely to be classified as extremely vigilant. an hour after consuming cannabis "according to the study.
One of the possibilities is that, immediately after use, people "are actually able to effectively focus on tasks," said the authors, but that, three and five hours later, a type of different disability s' installs when people and become more tired and more easily distracted.
The study focused only on young healthy and recreational users, and the authors warn that the results can not be extrapolated to everyday users and chronic users, "nor to those who suffer from health problems for which cannabis can be used. medical treatment has been prescribed.
However, differences may be more pronounced among older cannabis users, as older adults tend to experience age-related loss of response time and a slower response to distractors.
"When we drive, we have to be ready to respond to unexpected situations," said Isabelle Gélinas, co-author and researcher at the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy at McGill University. "The ability to react to new and more complex tasks has been changed."
Even five hours after eating, volunteers in his study said they did not feel safe driving, Gélinas said.
According to data collected by Statistics Canada in the first half of 2018, approximately 1.4 million Canadians reported being a passenger in a vehicle driven by a person who had used cannabis in the previous two hours. In addition, one in seven cannabis users with driving licenses reported driving at least once within two hours of consumption in the last three months.
The findings of the new study are consistent with the recommendations of the Canadian Guidelines for "Lower Risk Cannabis Use", which recommends waiting six hours after using marijuana before driving.
Until now, police forces in Canada have been slow to implement roadside saliva tests to monitor a driver for recent drug use. They are also seeking to quickly and reliably obtain blood samples from drivers suspected of driving while impaired by drugs in order to use the new criminal charges created prior to the legalization of the recreational pot.
Nevertheless, police can still rely on field sobriety tests (which may involve standing on one leg or following an object with their eyes) to detect drug-impaired driving on the roadside. Anyone who fails can be taken for additional tests.
National Post, with records from Brian Platt
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