Who Drives Better: Drunks or Stoners? Scientists have built a high-tech simulator to lay this import

[cali]

By Jessica Portner Posted 05.27.2009 at 7:16 am 0 Comments


Anyone who has sped home after a night drinking at the bar, or gone out for a lazy ride after smoking marijuana, may already know intuitively what two Israeli professors have been driven to discover. Professors David Shinar and Adi Ronen at Ben Gurion University's Laboratory for Human Factors in Road Safety just opened a custom-built driving simulator this spring where they will conduct further research on pot-smoking drivers versus their inebriated counterparts. The gleaming bronze GM Cadillac simulator, which faces a wall of synchronized 160-degree screen images, immerses drivers in a personalized road trip like an IMAX movie, while researchers monitor their glance, expression, and heartbeat.

In a recent preliminary study, the professors enlisted 14 students -- all recreational marijuana users -- and tested them both when they were stoned and when they were soused. (Recruiting subjects for the marijuana and alcohol studies doesn't require much work. The lab doesn't even advertise, but as soon as word of the study got out, volunteers came rushing in.) The students were tested for physiological strain and driving performance as they drove through rural communities and desert scenes, and past roadblocks and pedestrians. One group smoked low and high doses of THC. Another downed vodka and "orange drink" cocktails to reach Israel's legal limit of .05 percent blood alcohol content. Others took a placebo.

None of the doped-up or drinking drivers were models of safety on the road. They tended to switch lane positions, swerve, and vary their steering. But the THC cigarette smokers drove significantly slower than the liquored-up subjects, who zoomed down the virtual lanes. The drinking drivers also tended to be confident and boast a sense of control, while the pot smokers seem to be "more aware of their impairment."

But that feeling can be a road hazard. "People who smoke marijuana think they can compensate for the drug's effect, but they can't," said Shinar, who founded the lab and is the chief scientist of Israel's National Road Safety Authority. "A detachment from reality is dangerous." More people die in traffic accidents than in wars, Shinar emphasized; he hopes this study will step up enforcement of dosed-up drivers.

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http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2009-05/who-drives-better-drunks-or-stoners

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Just what I was gonna say - Stoners, cuz they only go 10 miles an hour.

[Warpy]

9. Right, and they know they're bombed

Drunks are feeling great and will tell you they drive better when they're buzzed. Stoners just want to get there in one piece so they tend to avoid main roads and go v e r y s l o w l y.

Road rash from falling off my bicycle drunk at 13 convinced me that driving drunk was not going to be a good idea. I can now say I've never driven drunk.

[L0oniX]

10. Hey ...maybe that's why all these old fucks drive so slow in the fast lane ...they're doped up.

:sarcasm:

[alfredo]

21. Hell yes. Metimucil and and Gold Bond really fucks you up.

[MADem]

2. The ones who drive best are the very wealthy ones.

They can afford to hire a sober chauffeur!

[havocmom]

12. More often, they just spend coin on meaner lawyers

I know of too many cases where the rich drunk driver got away with murder.

[MADem]

16. I never can understand these film stars and singers (I use the term loosely) who get bagged for

DUI/OUI and they make MILLIONS a year. Hire a damned chauffeur. Why do these assholes "need" to drive their own Escalade or other inappropriate vehicle around all by themselves?

Shit, get a mini van, put a little bed, fridge and a tv in the "wayback," hire a guy to drive you around, and have him park and chill out--nap, watch the tube, have a sandwich....and pay him well for his time and attention to detail. Surely a millionaire could afford to pay some poor bastard a decent wage for that kind of service, and even fund the guy's retirement. It wouldn't be that big a deal for the very rich. Instead, these "forty million a film" types get into accidents, arguments with cops, and end up having their mugshot become a "point 'n laugh" exercise.

In the Middle East, they reduce the lawyer impact and profits--you can, if you kill someone over there, negotiate with the family of the bereaved, and simply pay blood money and a fine, and walk away from the situation. The family has to agree, though--otherwise, you do jail time.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Pot smokers seem to be "more aware of their impairment."

Dude...

[Fuzz]

25. Dude? Where is time?

[Canuckistanian]

4. How can you have a "placebo" for pot and alcohol?

You can pretty much tell within a few seconds whether you're getting buzzed or not.

[havocmom]

14. Some of us are such lightweight imbibers that mere suggestion gives a buzz

Seriously.

[NYC_SKP]

5. Well, I've driven into things under the influence of both... Back in the day, not lately.

Way back in the day.

Let's see. To use my "take it to the extreme" method of analysis:

Would I rather have everyone driving drunk, or everyone driving stoned?

I'll take everyone driving stoned.

[walkaway]

6. When you're stoned you stay home (or where ever you are)

and passively listen to music, play with your partner, watch TV or have nice long chats while sitting on the couch.

When you get drunk....well, the statistics speak for themselves.

The problem with the experiment is that the stoned group were required to drive when they would rather eat cake and laugh.

[cali]

7. I wish someone would tell that to my kid

who loves to smoke while driving. Happily, he hasn't had so much as a fender bender but it still bugs me.

[ensho]

18. there is a difference between being 'high' or being 'stoned' on pot

nt

[Vickers]

8. I'm pretty sure I've never driven over 35 mph while I was high.

:P

[snooper2]

17. that's what cruise control is for..

:)

[kentuck]

23. You feel unsafe driving the speed limit.

:-)

[surrealAmerican]

11. Vodka and "orange drink" cocktails sound ghastly...

... and in Israel no less, where you'd think they could get actual orange juice.

[slampoet]

15. I guess they ran out of Vodka and Kool-aide. Klassy! OHHHH YEAHH!

[eauclaireliberal]

13. Stoners, of course

Drunks are absolutely convinced they can drive. Stoners would rather chill-out and sleep it off in the car while parked on the side of the road.

[Threedifferentones]

19. There is one other wrinkle this article does not seem to consider.

The strong effects of even a (smoked, not eaten) marijuana binge are gone in an hour or two, leaving one feeling a little odd, perhaps dazed and tired. No more impaired than someone who is exhausted from working 12 hours straight, probably even less because the person who is just plain exhausted will probably be in a hurry to get home. The same cannot be said for alcohol, the effects of which will last many hours after a binge.

[book_worm]

20. Neither should be driving when under the influence.

[sammythecat]

22. Both are extremely dangerous

but I think the odds of serious injury and death go way up if the accident involves a drunk driver rather than a stoner.

[Mopar151]

24. They need to test for other drugs

NyQuil, for 1 - also many prescription drugs in conjunction with low doses of alcahol.