The issue is that smoking marijuana does impair driving, meaning you shouldn’t drive. The law needs some kind of proof that doesn’t rely on a time machine, so they test your body. Your body can’t really tell you when the thc entered your body, so you get two options:
The test can still prove you were under the influence at some recent-ish moment, so any sufficient amount in your blood means you can’t drive.
The test can’t prove it’s recent enough for you to have been impaired while driving, so it can’t be used as proof, which effectively means you could never be convicted of being under the influence (meaning it’s unenforceable).
The former negatively impacts marijuana users who won’t be able to drive for some time. The latter means people under the influence could drive and due to their impairment hit and kill someone.
Somewhat obviously, the lawmakers have decided that blocking some people from driving is better than letting someone under the influence drive a speedy death machine. So the law doesn’t care whether you were actually impaired; it was in your system, so you’re not allowed to drive.
No, the law is not ideal, and yes, I do find the implications questionable as well. Some people could end up not being able to drive for multiple weeks.
However, that was the trade off that had to be made. People want weed to be legal, which it absolutely should be. Let’s not forget this thread started out with outrage about a guy whon ran over a kid. Now, there are no tests that offer insights into a shorter, more recent time window of consumption, so how are we going to resolve the question if that driver was driving under the influence?
The law made a compromise, that, according to studies, mostly affects heavy users that consume THC daily, and yes, for those people, the law currently does not represent an ideal resolution. But that doesn’t even apply to all people who smoke or otherwise consume weed, and it can be resolved by the introduction of better tests without rewriting the law while providing the necessary framework for legalization.
I’d prefer for weed to be legal and not being able to drive for a week than to be arrested, treated like a rapist by cops and then to be dragged to court for the possession of miniscule amounts of THC, which was the previous state.
Ah yes, you smoke and then can’t drive at all for a week. That’s totally a well written law. /s
That “proof” should be laughed out of any court. It doesn’t prove you were under the influence at the time. At all.
The issue is that smoking marijuana does impair driving, meaning you shouldn’t drive. The law needs some kind of proof that doesn’t rely on a time machine, so they test your body. Your body can’t really tell you when the thc entered your body, so you get two options:
The former negatively impacts marijuana users who won’t be able to drive for some time. The latter means people under the influence could drive and due to their impairment hit and kill someone.
Somewhat obviously, the lawmakers have decided that blocking some people from driving is better than letting someone under the influence drive a speedy death machine. So the law doesn’t care whether you were actually impaired; it was in your system, so you’re not allowed to drive.
No, the law is not ideal, and yes, I do find the implications questionable as well. Some people could end up not being able to drive for multiple weeks.
However, that was the trade off that had to be made. People want weed to be legal, which it absolutely should be. Let’s not forget this thread started out with outrage about a guy whon ran over a kid. Now, there are no tests that offer insights into a shorter, more recent time window of consumption, so how are we going to resolve the question if that driver was driving under the influence?
The law made a compromise, that, according to studies, mostly affects heavy users that consume THC daily, and yes, for those people, the law currently does not represent an ideal resolution. But that doesn’t even apply to all people who smoke or otherwise consume weed, and it can be resolved by the introduction of better tests without rewriting the law while providing the necessary framework for legalization.
I’d prefer for weed to be legal and not being able to drive for a week than to be arrested, treated like a rapist by cops and then to be dragged to court for the possession of miniscule amounts of THC, which was the previous state.