Epic stupid. Your tax dollars at "work."

[Adam]

Federal grant funds Colorado effort to fight driving while high on pot

Efforts are expanding to keep those who overindulge on weed from getting behind the wheel — and punishing those who do.

A $400,000 grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is being used for an anti-imbibing and driving campaign and to train more law enforcement officers to spot pot-impaired drivers.

"It's ironic we're using federal funding for something that is illegal federally," Colorado Department of Transportation spokeswoman Emily Wilfong said. "But they (federal officials) do realize this is a traffic safety issue and needs to be addressed."

A chunk of the money will go toward television advertising. Posters warning of the danger of impaired driving will be distributed to stores that sell pot.

Brought to you through a collaboration of the Colorado Bureau of Extreme Gall and the Department of You Can't Make This Shit Up.

[Frostbit]

[Novaheart]

What is the limit for smoking pot and driving?

[phillygirl]

What is the limit for smoking pot and driving?

Excellent question.

[Gingersnap]

What is the limit for smoking pot and driving?

5 nangrams per mililiter of blood. No one believes this is a useful measurement.

Cops have always been able to pull drivers over for weed - if they were driving erratically or in an unsafe manner. Unsurprisingly, driving-while-stoned is not a significant cause of DUI tickets or accidents out here.

[Novaheart]

5 nangrams per mililiter of blood. No one believes this is a useful measurement.

Cops have always been able to pull drivers over for weed - if they were driving erratically or in an unsafe manner. Unsurprisingly, driving-while-stoned is not a significant cause of DUI tickets or accidents out here.

Perhaps not, but somewhere out there in the world is a 1974 Pinto station wagon with a bunged up headlight.

[Gramps]

5 nangrams per mililiter of blood. No one believes this is a useful measurement.

Cops have always been able to pull drivers over for weed - if they were driving erratically or in an unsafe manner. Unsurprisingly, driving-while-stoned is not a significant cause of DUI tickets or accidents out here.

There is no significant roadside test for THC intoxication.
With alcohol, there is the field breathalizer that will indicate probable cause to pull the person into the nearest station for a breathalizer blow on a calibrated unit.

Not so with pot.

The cops are going to have to ignore it, or work on 'field sobriety' evidence that will be challenged in 90% of the cases or the laws in the 'legal pot' states will have to amend their laws to require a vampire test if they want to make a case.

Field Sobriety Tests are personal observations only and I don't give a flying fuck how many LEO exclaim that are professionally trained.
If the current alcohol/driving arrests was dependent on field sobriety tests administered on the road side, the conviction rate would drop by 90%

I'm not against de-criminalization of pot, but I have been poking holes in the whole premise for over 15 years on the nets.

"it will be cheaper"
"look at the tax revenue"
"I drive better stoned than straight"

All it's gonna take in one of the legal states is for some stoned idiot with a baggie of legal with a one hitter to kill some innocent victims in another car and we will see MAPH... Mothers Against Pot Heads...

Another industry will be born.
Laws will be changed.

[Adam]

There is no significant roadside test for THC intoxication.
With alcohol, there is the field breathalizer that will indicate probable cause to pull the person into the nearest station for a breathalizer blow on a calibrated unit.

Not so with pot.

The cops are going to have to ignore it, or work on 'field sobriety' evidence that will be challenged in 90% of the cases or the laws in the 'legal pot' states will have to amend their laws to require a vampire test if they want to make a case.

Field Sobriety Tests are personal observations only and I don't give a flying fuck how many LEO exclaim that are professionally trained.
If the current alcohol/driving arrests was dependent on field sobriety tests administered on the road side, the conviction rate would drop by 90%

I'm not against de-criminalization of pot, but I have been poking holes in the whole premise for over 15 years on the nets.

"it will be cheaper"
"look at the tax revenue"
"I drive better stoned than straight"

All it's gonna take in one of the legal states is for some stoned idiot with a baggie of legal with a one hitter to kill some innocent victims in another car and we will see MAPH... Mothers Against Pot Heads...

Another industry will be born.
Laws will be changed.

At least around here, sadly, the cops can use damn near any pretext to demand that someone give up blood. The DUI laws have been warped to the point that the Fourth Amendment barely even exists any more when it comes to DUI, all in the name of "giving police the tools to fight driving under the influence." About the only real defense, unless someone can manage to pick apart some technicality (that the cops are, of course, trained to avoid), the only real defense is to go and get your own test done independently of the cops' test, or take implied consent. Even implied consent has been taken away to some extent: now, if the police claim that someone is "too impaired to decline," they can simply decline someone's request for implied consent and haul them in and force someone to give up blood, even if that means holding them down and forcibly drawing blood.

DUI laws have just gotten completely out of control. I'm at a point that I'm about ready to declare that MADD should be prosecuted under RICO.

[Gingersnap]

Yep, refusing to submit to the blood test doesn't do much out here - the police can arrest you if they simply think you've got a problem. If you get arrested, you can refuse the blood test but you'll lose your license for longer than your potentially drunk peer. You can now challenge the legality of the stop at your license revocation hearing but no one knows if that this new provision will do any good.