Cannabis and driving? Studies reveal big risks
PaulHoule
17 points
7 comments
May 14, 2026
Related Discussions
Found 5 related stories in 84.4ms across 8,303 title embeddings via pgvector HNSW
- Study finds no evidence cannabis helps anxiety, depression, or PTSD nothrowaways · 190 pts · March 21, 2026 · 47% similar
- US Department of Justice has officially reclassified cannabis as less dangerous kaycebasques · 153 pts · April 23, 2026 · 46% similar
- I didn't think I could get addicted to weed. I was wrong – and I'm not alone n1b0m · 30 pts · May 08, 2026 · 46% similar
- Cannabinoids remove plaque-forming Alzheimer's proteins from brain cells (2016) anjel · 93 pts · March 16, 2026 · 45% similar
- Common drug tests lead to tens of thousands wrongful arrests a year rawgabbit · 116 pts · April 05, 2026 · 44% similar
Discussion Highlights (5 comments)
syeare
TL;DR Nonsense "study" A study for real world risks based on a videogame , of all things? Its impossible to directly map the experience of being behind the wheel in real life to a game, and the article doesn't even mention whether it's an actual simulation (like beam.NG), game-like (as in Assetto Corsa), or plain arcade fantasy (GTA, Need for Speed) OBVIOUSLY people are gonna play games in a more fun/different way under the influence They even admit that inhaled usage showed little to no consistency in driving difference Bias disclaimer: I stopped consumption some time back
erelong
n=1 but I see tons of distracted driving, like relatedly people still text and talk and drive and... it mostly works out ok So still probably ideal for people to aim to be perfectly sober and focused, but... we might end up "ok" in a lot of cases even if that ideal isn't achieved
The_President
Risks may include: - Stopping at green lights - Dropping the doob between the seats - The Ozium can rolling out of reach - Driving thru multiple fast food venues in one trip
jmux
> Participants in the occasional and daily groups used their own cannabis at the doses they typically consume. > “We didn’t tell people what to use because there’s a really big continuum of how people use and how they respond to that dosage,” Brooks-Russell said, explaining that they wanted these studies to reflect how people use cannabis outside of the lab. Actually a really smart process decision - in past studies I’ve seen they always used a prescribed dose but having the participants choose makes a lot of sense
naruhodo
It's not unexpected that infrequent users are more impacted by acute use. The article doesn't quantify accident risk, from what I can see. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), however, actually has quantified the relative change in accident risk. [1] The table in the linked document (N/A = not available): Crash Risk Culpability Alcohol (BAC = 0.02) 1.03–1.19 1.36 Alcohol (BAC = 0.05) 1.38–1.75 2.19 Alcohol (BAC = 0.08) 2.69–2.92 3.63 Cannabis 1.11–1.42 1.20–1.42 Antidepressants 1.35–1.40 N/A Antihistamines 1.12 N/A Benzodiazepines and Z-hypnotics 1.17–2.30 1.41 Opiates 1.68–2.29 1.47 In Australia, the legal limit for Blood Alcohol Concentration when driving is 0.05. We are subject to roadside drug testing that checks for alcohol, methamphetamine, cannabis and cocaine. But not benzos, opiates or depressants, AFAIK. In almost all Australian states and territories, having a cannabis prescription is not a valid legal defence against loss of licence when a roadside test detects cannabis metabolites. The tests do not indicate impairment, only past use within the last few days. The Australian political class actively resists changing the law to be fair to medicinal cannabis patients. If the system was really fair, it would perform a field sobriety test to prove impairment. Recognising that cannabis use only increases crash risk by the same amount as a legal BAC would be a good start. [1] https://www1.racgp.org.au/getattachment/ef4cc327-723b-42c9-b...