Testing for impairment from THC is not as simple as testing for impairment from alcohol.
It's a molecule that is similar to normal endogenous chemicals, and the human body is good at building tolerance to it.
Here is a video (timestamped to the relevant content) of an expert explaining to Huberman why it is so difficult to assess impairment from blood levels.
> I mentally add, "... because we can't even test for it when we pull you over, so... please don't."
Thats not entirely true.
I knew 2 people who loved to drive high. Evidently it feels great (their words, not mine).
Now, being incapacitated or inebriated with any substance is illegal. Even prescription drugs. And basic roadside sobriety tests like "walk in straight line", can be an easy fail if you cant stand up.
Now weirdly, ive never heard of anyone ticketed or pulled for driving sick or very tired. Even though both of those conditions can also be just as dangerous.
The roadside tests can be declined with no penalty in my state. So, if I was driving high on THC I’d say “I refuse field sobriety tests but will consent to chemical blood testing, which I am obligated to comply with or lose my driving privileges.”
I’d test positive and then say “Good luck proving I was intoxicated while driving!” and then the DA would refuse to file charges, because there is no way to prove that with THC if you refuse roadside tests.
Managed to get pulled over by a State Trooper on a highway because I failed to dim my brights going by a couple cars and I was just a hair over the speed limit (63/55). I was tired and it was ten more miles to the house after a long maintenance window at the hospital overnight. I was given a warning and some mercy after a quick records check.
Well, you definitely can, in a safer and legal manner.
1. Get crossfaded (cannabis and alcohol to do both drunk and high). Sit in comfy chair. Close eyes, imagine a roller coaster. Yeah, that works.
2. Get in car, PASSENGERS seat. Someone else not inebriated drives. Enjoy the ride!
3. You can do on the sly cannabis vapes before going on a roller coaster at a theme park. Obviously harder to do. Again, you get strapped in, and enjoy the ride.
The roadside test is basically a test to see if you are a moron dumb enough to consent to it. If you perform an FST good luck doing it in a way that can't be used against you.
In my state you're only required to submit to chemical testing, which the courts have ruled the little portable breathalizer machine isn't, and even if you refuse all they can do is suspend your license and then try to get a warrant.
> The roadside test is basically a test to see if you are a moron dumb enough to consent to it.
It's "voluntary" in Germany as well both for alcohol and other drugs, but if you refuse it the cops can and will use every avenue they can to make your life absolutely fucking miserable, and there are a looooot of ways they can abuse.
Especially if you are in the proximity of a highway or important federal road, they can pull off the full "border control checkpoint" under Schengen laws.
Exactly. The test is structured to let the officer use tricks of body language and inference write a police report that makes you seem falling down drunk despite you acing the test.
Given THC lingers in your blood for so long, the inevitable delays in getting the perp to the testing facility won’t help their blood levels fall under the threshold, whatever it is.
Norway used to have a blood alcohol threshold of zero, and if you had any, you were immediately shipped to Ilseng prison, no ifs or buts. Sadly they have abandoned this enlightened policy.
Due to the way weed was legalized in my state, they accidently made THC results ineligible as standalone evidence of intoxication, as ruled by our state's supreme court. If all they have is the THC+ test and no FST they basically have nothing. This from actual appeals case, not just a legal hypothetical.
All drugs have a half-life in a body. Alcohol is no different.
Remind me again, when you're measuring a half-life, when the result is 0? Thats right, its a sum of an infinite series. Hard to say how many days/weeks/months before you measure an absolute 0.
Again, we've seen this form of zero tolerance again and again, and its always the wrong answer. Good on Norway to get rid of this terrible policy.
This is bad advice on a national level. In many states, the best-case scenario if you refuse the FST is that you get a free ride to the police station and have to undergo a blood test.
They couldn't even find a doctor/nurse willing to execute it, and even better like 12 hours of 2 officer's time was wasted (before they gave up, LMAO) trying to execute it so they couldn't hassle anyone else.
No charges, and since I refused to even talk to the police they had nothing.
I'll take getting dragged to the station any day instead of just handing PC to them on a silver platter with some subjective test.
> The roadside test is basically a test to see if you are a moron dumb enough to consent to it.
Only a moron would not consent to it, lest they lose their license for a year regardless of the outcome of their DUI charge, since it's a separate charge that cannot be fought (you either did the FST or you didn't).
(Of course, every state is different, but I was just matching your matter-of-factness as incorrect-in-general as it was.)
Field sobriety tests are not mandatory in Minnesota, only chemical testing. I’d refuse field sobriety tests every time, they’re subjective. There’s no reason to comply and open yourself up to legal risk in states where it isn’t required.
I'm not aware of any state that suspends your license for not doing the FST. Mine only suspends for not doing chemical testing, and the PBT doesn't count (and is inadmissible).
I was using intentionally vague language to make the point that the study doesn't show us much.
The video I linked is pretty comprehensive. If you skip around, you can find them talking about usage patterns, and how long THC stays in your system, etc.
I am surprised to learn that, thanks! The conditional probability would suggest, if evenly distributed among accidents, to be similar then. So about half of accidents would be included, not the majority
Here is a video (timestamped to the relevant content) of an expert explaining to Huberman why it is so difficult to assess impairment from blood levels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jouFvyRZntk&t=6072s
The study in TFA may just be finding that nearly half of drivers in Ohio are habitual cannabis users, or used cannabis in the past few days.