MAJOR THREAT NOT SUPPORTED BY SCIENCE

RE: "It's not just about driving drunk," Dec. 12. The police's
assertions that marijuana is a major threat to road safety is simply
not supported by science or numbers. Sure, pot can impair some
people, but it doesn't impair every user, and it doesn't impair every
time. A cellphone, coffee, smokes or food in-hand ... loud
passengers, rowdy pets, old age, medications, inexperience and plain
old stupidity can sometimes impair people far more than a pot high
will, so singling out pot users is arbitrary and discriminatory. And
that was their whole point: pot can remain in your body for months
after the last puff (much like being charged for drunk driving five
days after a sip of wine), so it should be easy enough to get a
conviction because any positive test is immediately considered
"impairment". Canadians smoke more pot than any other country in the
world, we use the most potent pot and we admit to toking and driving
more than any other country. Why are we not seeing four or even five
times as many crashes? Because, like everything police say about
marijuana, it is all just a lot of hype.

Russell Barth

(Pot isn't booze. But driving stoned is risky and stupid.)