28/11/2007 00:00:00
Australia: Safe cannabis levels defined for driving
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Drink-drivers know they’re in trouble if their blood alcohol tops 0.05.
This week, researchers suggest an equivalent limit for cannabis.
A panel of experts from Australia and elsewhere considered the
epidemiological evidence regarding cannabis use and driving, with an eye
to developing a legal limit for safe motoring.
“Limited epidemiological studies indicate that serum concentrations of
delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) below 10 ng/mL are not associated
with an elevated accident risk,” they report in Addiction.
Comparing meta-analyses of experimental studies, they also found that a
THC concentration in the serum of 7-10 ng/mL causes the same level of
impairment as a blood alcohol level of 0.05%.
A blood cannabis limit of that level “offers reasonably reliable
separation of drivers whose driving is in fact impaired by cannabis from
those who are not impaired,” the authors suggest.
But under Australian laws, such limits are irrelevant. Current roadside
drug testing in Victoria and elsewhere, takes a zero-tolerance approach.
Any driver found with detectable cannabis markers in his or her saliva
has committed an offence.
Drug researcher Wayne Hall worries that those policies are a threaten to
civil liberties. “Should the authorities have the power to force
citizens to incriminate themselves when they have not committed a
driving offence or been involved in an accident?” he writes in an editorial.
He says there is no evidence thee laws save lives, and that the success
of roadside drug testing needs to be evaluated.
“If evidence of an impact on drug driving is forthcoming, citizens
should have the right to debate whether these public health benefits
offset the threats to democratic freedoms.”
http://www.6minutes.com.au/articles/z1/view.asp?id=137358
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=13046
Author:
6 minutes via UKCIA
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