TOKING UP FOR LOVE OF SCIENCE

Victorian marijuana smokers will be paid to inhale for the sake of science
as part of a study into the accuracy of roadside impairment tests in
monitoring the drug's effects.

After six months of legal red tape, Swinburne University of Technology's
Brain Sciences Institute is awaiting delivery of strong, mild and placebo
marijuana cigarettes from the United States.

The research subjects will smoke a marijuana cigarette before starting on a
four-hour process of blood tests, driving in a "cyber car" simulator and
performing roadside impairment tests.

"We are trying to answer a social question about people who take marijuana.
Are they posing a risk on the roads and can these tests detect them?" said
researcher Dr Con Stough.

The project is sponsored by VicRoads, has government permission and
university ethical approval, said Dr Stough, a senior lecturer in cognitive
neurosciences.

To participate, subjects would have to hold a full licence and pass a
medical showing they were in good health, had no mental disorders, were not
on medication and had smoked marijuana before.

The research will form part of the basis of a PhD thesis for a Swinburne
student, Ms Katherine Tzambazis, who said it was the first Australian study
of sobriety tests and marijuana.

The tests include standing on one leg while counting from 1001, walking up
and down a straight line while counting steps, and following with the eyes
an object passed across the field of vision.

Recruitment for the study was progressing well through posters and a
suburban newspaper, Ms Tzambazis said, although women were slower to sign
up than men.

Previous research overseas suggests drivers are more cautious under the
influence of marijuana, but there is a question over their ability to react
quickly in an emergency, Ms Tzambazis said.

A spokeswoman for the State Government yesterday said it supported the
research, but had no policy on the introduction of roadside impairment
tests at this stage.

Proposals in 1996 and 1998 to allow police to take blood and urine samples
from drivers to confirm roadside tests were attacked by some doctors and
civil libertarians.

Swinburne's Dr Stough said that while the participants would be paid - $60
total for participation on three occasions - the amount was kept low to
avoid inducing poor people to smoke the drug.

"You are really doing it for the love of science ... or getting free THC
(marijuana's active ingredient)," he said.

The research participants will be given a taxi voucher to get home.