Flores had run off the road and killed a jogger, Carrie Jean Holliman, a 56-year-old Chico elementary school teacher. California Highway Patrol officers thought he might be impaired and conducted a sobriety examination. Flores' tongue had a green coat typical of heavy marijuana users and a later test showed he had pot, as well as other drugs, in his blood.Another reason why druggies are losers.
After pleading guilty to manslaughter, Flores, a medical marijuana user, was sentenced in February to 10 years and 8 months in prison.
Holliman's death and others like it across the nation hint at what experts say is an unrecognized crisis: stoned drivers.
The most recent assessment by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, based on random roadside checks, found that 16.3% of all drivers nationwide at night were on various legal and illegal impairing drugs, half them high on marijuana.
In California alone, nearly 1,000 deaths and injuries each year are blamed directly on drugged drivers, according to CHP data, and law enforcement puts much of the blame on the rapid growth of medical marijuana use in the last decade. Fatalities in crashes where drugs were the primary cause and alcohol was not involved jumped 55% over the 10 years ending in 2009.
"Marijuana is a significant and important contributing factor in a growing number of fatal accidents," said Gil Kerlikowske, director of National Drug Control Policy in the White House and former Seattle police chief. "There is no question, not only from the data but from what I have heard in my career as a law enforcement officer."
As the medical marijuana movement has gained speed — one-third of the states now allow such sales — federal officials are pursuing scientific research into the impairing effects of the drug.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Stoned Drivers
At Los Angeles Times, "Stoned drivers are uncharted territory":
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13 comments:
Druggies are not losers. The fact that someone consumes a mind altering substance doesn't make that person any less of a good or bad human being than they already are. "Druggies are losers", indeed. Maybe some people out there have their own opinions on what the State tells us we can put in our own body. MJ usage has been around thousands of years, and I can assure you that alcoholism has killed more people and destroyed more families than my Mary Jane. Go watch "Reefer Madness" again, ignorant statist. FYI I am a tea party independent.
Druggies are losers, John. Stoners are losers. Are you a loser?
Sure, I smoke pot. You think I'm scared to admit that? I'm not scared of this government one bit. You take a drink? Enjoy a little Icehouse or gin on the side, buddy? Because if you consume alcohol, you are a drunk. When did you stop beating your wife, anyway? That's the comparison, right? Socially, I am no "loser" (whatever that means), and I smoke pot with people that earn big bucks, son. Oh, and Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, both hemp farmers. They were losers, too. Huge losers. Not that they would ever consume the hemp fruit. Keep telling yourself that. What are you gonna do when pot is illegal, anyway? How is that Regan policy of mandatory sentencing working out for you, anyway? You must think it's pretty smart when pot farmers get locked up for a mandatory 20 or 30 years, but illegals and violent criminals get let out with a slap on the wrist. After all, they are not required to be in there for any minimum period of time. Yep, that's real smart. I'll bet his daughter being a drug addict had nothing to do with that policy decision. Sure has helped out the country, having all those pot smokers getting indoctrinated in prison by other, more hardened criminals as well as Islamic extremists. I'm sure that there would be a lot more healthy, functioning black men out there if they received treatment for cocaine addiction, rather than simply incarcerating them without question. Rather than that, we simply have prisoners who cannot get a decent job, immerse themselves in violent drug culture, and hate the society that locked them up. Just because you get linked on Instapundent doesn't make you a genius, grampa. Winners think their moral stances through to the end. Simply throwing dirt on people who consume drugs [in the age of drugs and pharmaceuticals] betrays an agenda or simply an opinion out of step with reason.
John: I don't care how much pot you smoke or how much money you make. If you offered me a toke off a joint I'd turn you down and head for the door. Pot is for losers, sorry pal.
Well, good luck on that prohibition, pal. I am a young guy, and almost every_single_person (80% safely) I know smokes pot. There is no getting away from it, it is widespread, and almost everybody does it. I'm not just saying that. Almost everybody does it. Your life, I won't push my virtues on you, but you should think a second before broadsiding every single person who visits your blog, with a j in their mouth. It's not all "high times magazine", and all that garbage. In fact, I despise that mode of pot culture. However, if conservatism doesn't have a stake in that cultural experience, like everything else, it will be permeated with filthy san fransicko "Get high and drop out" liberalism. Pot doesn't hurt anyone, and people will continue to do it. Let's just get used to it.
John, young people grow up. They geta life. I'm sure you will too. Until then, as I said druggies are losers.
I don't think you understand Don's totally nuanced and well thought out position on this issue, John. He's not making an argument for why drugs are bad; "drugs are bad" is his argument. We now know that at least one person was listening to Nancy Reagan instead of thinking for himself during the eighties, right?
If you've ever tried to have a rational conversation with a young child you'll know exactly what I'm talking about here...
Drugs are bad, JBW. Is that nuanced enough for you, LOL??!! James B. 'Sponge Bob' Webb!!
As nuanced as I've come to expect from you Don but of course I wasn't talking to you; you still bore me. Go listen to your government some more.
John: I'd advise finding something better to do with your time than trying to get through to this five-year-old, he's a Mr. Mackey clone. Try having a socio-political discussion with your house plants or bailing out the ocean, something productive. Arguing with people who are too weak or stupid to decide how to live their own lives is a waste of good weed, my friend.
'...you still bore me.'
Right.
That's why you're over here in my comments the moment you notice you can twist the knife a bit. Been too coked out to blog? Winning!
That's nice, Don. Keep fucking that chicken.
I've known this for forty years!It isn't just marijuana, for you dummie protesters. Coke, meth,heroin, hash, you name it they're all impairments. I don't indulge in any of these things because I believe them to be destructive. And before anyone shoots his irresponsible mouth off, I have plenty of first hand horror stories about drugs including members of my own family, one of whom shot themselves in a drug induced stupor.
"if you drink too much from a bottle marked 'poison' it is certain to disagree with you sooner or later. "
— Lewis Carroll
'I have plenty of first hand horror stories about drugs including members of my own family, one of whom shot themselves in a drug induced stupor.'
Thanks for commenting. Sorry to hear about this. Hope things are a little better in that area.
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