Berkshire, United Kingdom: Marijuana has far less impact on psychomotor skills than alcohol and is seldom a causal factor in automobile accidents, according to the findings of two recent international studies.
The first, conducted by Britain’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), found that drivers under the influence of marijuana performed better behind the wheel than those under the influence of alcohol. Researchers reported that although pot adversely influenced subjects’ ability to accurately steer a car (so-called “tracking ability”), the drug failed to affect volunteer’s reaction time or any other measures of driving performance. Researchers further noted that subjects under the influence of marijuana – unlike alcohol – were aware of their impairment and attempted to compensate for it by driving more cautiously.
The findings confirmed those of a preliminary TRL study released approximately one-year ago.
Similar results were also reported this week by a South Australian team at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology at the University of Adelaide. Their study found that alcohol “overwhelmingly plays the greatest role in road crashes … [and] conversely, … marijuana has a negligible impact on culpability.” An earlier Australian review of 2,500 injured drivers also found that cannabis had “no significant effect” on drivers’ culpability in motor vehicle accidents.
NORML Foundation Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said that the results were unsurprising. “These results reaffirm that marijuana’s slight impairment on psychomotor skills generally falls within the range of safety we accept for prescription medications and other legal, potentially debilitating factors,” he said.
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of The NORML Foundation at (202) 483-8751.