Lies about Cannabis
Recently, I was scrolling down my Facebook page when I came across a post about cannabis which was titled, “First of its kind study finds virtually no driving impairment under the influence of Marijuana.” I thought that this post was contradictory. I remembered writing a blog just a few weeks ago where I clearly did my research and discovered that since Colorado legalized cannabis and went into effect in 2014, there has been an increase in traffic accidents in Colorado where the drivers were high from the consumption of cannabis.
There has not been a major increase in the number of traffic accidents or even an increase in the number of fatal car crashes. However, there has been a 3% increase in the number of people losing control of their vehicle and getting into minor traffic accidents—according to the Insurance Institute of Highway Saftey (IIHS).
I decided to read the cannabis report referenced in the Facebook post to see if the title was misleading. I discovered that the report clearly states, “Drivers with blood concentrations of 13.1 ug/L THC, or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana, showed increased weaving that was similar to those with a .08 breath alcohol concentration, the legal limit in most states. The legal limit for THC in Washington and Colorado is 5 ug/L, the same amount other states have considered.”
In other words, the title should have read, “First of its kind study finds that people under the influence of Marijuana weave in traffic similar to those on alcohol.” And, the worst part of this misleading title is that it was written by Dr. John Regan with urhealthguide.com. We might wonder if the motive behind such a misleading title was to simply bait people—unfortunately, more often than not, people just read Facebook titles and move on.
In my opinion, writing such a title to a study that so clearly states the opposite is misleading to your readers, not to mention contrary to an author’s moral obligation when writing. Why compromise your reader’s trust just to gain more clicks to your website?
Clearly, there are positive news articles about cannabis. For example, recent studies have concluded that because people getting high rather than drinking alcohol, the number of fatal car accidents have gone down. This is because people smoking more weed are drinking less alcohol, so their impairment isn’t as severe. Drunk driving has been the leading cause of fatal traffic accidents for a while now. In the end, I’m confused why people don’t stop drinking and smoking pot (and texting) while driving and just focus on driving safely.
We have a drug abuse problem in America. I won’t deny that cannabis has some medicinal properties, but with that said, it isn’t a miracle drug or something you can just smoke up and then expect to be alert while you are driving.
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