Are You Afraid Of Getting A DUI For Having THC In Your Blood?
maybe don't read this if you're currently high. Or do. You decide! Freedom ride!
I worded it that way on purpose. I'm not asking if you're worried about getting a DUI for driving stoned, because if you're driving stoned... well, you probably should be worried about getting a DUI.
I'm referring to getting a DUI for having THC in your blood, but not actually being high.
Should we be concerned about people who are super high driving around and endangering others? Yes, we should. But does that mean that the prohibition is justified? If your answer was yes, do you feel the same way about alcohol?
In 2015, 10,265 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (29%) of all traffic-related deaths in the United States. - CDC
It's easy to tell how drunk someone is by simply using breath alcohol testing devices, such as a breathalyzer. Such devices are accurately able to detect the blood alcohol content of the driver suspected of being impaired.
The reason breathalyzers work with alcohol but do not work in the same way with cannabis has to do with where the drugs are stored within one's body. Alcohol is a water-loving compound whereas cannabis is a fat-loving compound. Alcohol may last in your blood longer, but it does not linger around in your tissues like THC does. Similarly, THC does not stay in the blood very long at all. Nearly three quarters of the THC will have disappeared from the user's blood within a half hour, and nearly all of the THC will be gone within an hour and a half.
That's when it gets a little worrisome. Washington, for example, has a limit of 5 nanograms of active THC per milliliter in a driver's blood. Any more than that, and you could be serious legal repercussions. There is no science to back the assumption that simply having 5 nanograms of active THC in one's blood necessarily means they're high. As I mentioned earlier, THC is stored in fat and tissues and lingers in the body for quite some time.
Not everyone reacts the same to THC at all. A person who wakes and bakes, and then smokes weed all throughout the day can most likely do so without seeming terribly high. I'm not suggesting that this person belongs behind the wheel of a car on the road, but I'm saying that they probably would have more than 5 nanograms of THC in their blood at any time. Should they just never be allowed to drive?
Society certainly seems like it's in denial about the reality of alcohol and driving. They serve alcohol at daytime craft fairs. Everyone loves a Bloody Mary or 4 with brunch, with a mini beer chaser, of course. County parks in some areas of the US have biergartens in them, right by the playground. How many people on the roads at bar close do you really think are sober? I'm not condoning any of that, but no one demonizes drinkers or uses the fact that so many people drive under the influence of alcohol to justify its prohibition. Parking lots full of people get wasted behind their cars before sporting events.
What about distracted driving due to mobile phone use? Pay attention the next time you're on the freeway, and look to see how many people are looking at their phones while they're driving. It's quite a lot of them. The National Safety Council says that mobile use while driving causes over 1.6 million crashes per year, and if that's not enough, they also say that crashes caused by mobile phone use are severely underreported.
When do you think the world will be a safe place for stoners to be themselves?