While the Internet celebrated Monday with Snoop Dogg, Cheech and Chong, the Colorado DOT did its part to ensure 420 Day revellers didn’t get high and drive.
Per AutoGuide, CDOT kicked off its safe marijuana use campaign over the weekend with a number of sites offering games, activities, and assorted snacks featuring guidance on what’s legal in Colorado and how much one can be fined for being caught driving while high.
According to CDOT Communication Manager Sam Cole, the agency has a responsibility “to pioneer marijuana education campaigns to keep our roadways safe” via “unique and eye-catching” methods meant to grab the attentions of cannabis consumers in the hope of reinforcing safe consumption and laws surrounding the legal use of pot in so doing.
Current legislation states a driver with 5 nanograms of THC in their blood can be arrested for DUI, as determined by a given officer’s observations at the time of the stop. Critics of the legislation state that those levels will still be in the bloodstream long after the other more intoxicating effects have worn off, especially among regular chronic users.
[Image source: Nick Harper/CIG]
So will those stickers be on boxes of Papa John’s too? ;-)
Chili Cheese Fritos.
Friends don’t let friends eat Papa John’s pizza, whether or not they’re driving.
+1
I must live in a cave , I didn’t hear any 4;20 news stories and was wondering why not .
-Nate
Legalizing marijuana is going to bring in a literal tsunami of revenue for state & local units of government, at the point of sale, and additionally, those same units of governments PLUS law enforcement agencies, courts and defense attorneys at the point of use, point of DUI arrest, point of legal representation retention, point of court proceedings, and point of pre and post court proceedings costs, fines & other assessments paid.
Just like speeding tickets, you “pay for freedom.”
I not sure it will be a “literal” tsunami – just a lot of money.
There will be a 10 meter high wall of money washing over the above referenced entities/people.
I expect so…tons of it…figuratively.
So far in WA there has not been a literal tsunami of revenue from the DUI aspect. Taxes from the sale of it on the other hand are certainly good. Surprisingly there have not been a lot of news stories about DUI convictions and I would think that the world is going to end crowd would have jumped on every single one they could find. I have seen an ad for a lawyer claiming to be a marijuana DUI specialist though.
The problem with DUI Convictions as Political Capital is that you have to wade through the overwhelming percentage of Alcohol related ones to get to the ones for Pot.
It’s also really, really hard to enforce, since the driving behavior of a High driver is statistically less likely to induce a stop.
I’ve never used marijuana.
That’s partially why I have no criminal record.
If the government makes it legal, I might try it, but I see too many people turning stupid getting high so I’m in no rush.
Marijuana soaks into the fat in the brain.
(Address all negative replies using the reply button down there vvv)
That’s just it ~ I see folks getting stupid when they’re stoned so it makes me not want to bother .
Sounds like a serious Government cash cow though .
-Nate
People who use it typically are not very smart in the fist place. They really don’t have much to lose.
People you SEE use an often illegal drug are typically not smart and having little to lose.
The market for marijuana is way to big for an intelligent person to think it is supported purely by the visible idiot “stoners” of which happen to have no job but are, again, able to support some states biggest cash crop…
BTSR, don’t use Marijuana. It would ruin what makes you you. A mellow BTSR would completely lose the plot!
I’ll second that.
“I’ve never used marijuana.
That’s partially why I have no criminal record.”
This may be the WASPy-est thing I have read on the internet today.
Because, ya know, REEFER MADNESS!!!!
I’m glad I was here to see this. Yep, Big Truck is an uptight WASP oppressor par excellence.
He’s as WASPy as Sam Jackson in Django :p
There are people who never tried mj (or alcohol, or any other drug for that matter) that are stupid like a bag of hammers, just saying…
Uh.. I should start using sarc switches. Big Truck may be a Protestant but he ain’t no WASP.
I smoked so much weed in the ’70s & early ’80s that I’m surprised cannabis resin didn’t clog my arteries before cholesterol ever got the chance. Then I quit. Quit drinking before that. Clean living, frequent sex and good sleep. All I need.
But I’d much rather have stoners than drunks on the road.
They don’t call it dope because it makes you smart.
Yep, never did marijuana or any other drug for that matter and even if they did make it legal I have no interest in it. I don’t care if other people do it, just not my cup of tea. My roommate in undergrad was a massive pot smoker and I watched as it caused him serious memory loss to the point where even he admitted it was doing so. My biggest problem with potheads is that they have the obsessive need to tell you they smoke pot. I don’t care, I don’t want to know, no one cares. Miley Cyrus is the poster child for pothead idiots.
Cocaine, meth and the other hard drugs, now those are scary. A couple years ago my family and I were accosted by a meth head checking into our hotel in the dead of winter in Missouri. The guy was wearing a dirty thin t-shirt and jeans, no shoes, no coat and was so out of his mind he literally could not speak english, just gibberish came out of his mouth, it was pretty scary.
The smartest person I know is a daily toker. Continues to be the smartest person I know with multiple mathematical and physics degrees (Phd’s) from at least 3 ivy league schools and a practicing physicist.
The dumbest person I know was anti-drug but would occasionally drink.
All I know is that they were that way prior to and after whatever drug they did or didn’t use. There are vast friends in between, and some just plain irresponsible.
One thing I do know is that idiots with nothing to lose, will show you how big of an idiot they are. So when you see that pothead or drunk on the corner – they have nothing to lose, they don’t care. They are not representative of the people that use marijuana or drink but act normal – so that you never even question it. This, to some degree, is referred to as confirmation bias.
How can anyone not like BTSR?
Seriously.
I can see where some here may not agree with him always or even often (though I think he is just less politically correct in car terms, and speaks unbridled truth more often than misguided/misinformed opinions, and that his style rubs some tepid people the wrong way), but to dislike him?
Me? I’m OCD cynical, jaded & critical when it comes to the crap I see being pumped out by certain manufacturers in terms of p!ss-poor quality, ugly styling, ridiculous pricing, idiotic interiors, stupid a$$ marketing, etc., and am an admitted or!ck (a factually correct one however) often, and I can see how this grates on fans of certain brands.
The top 3 brands on my current sh!t list are Acura, Cadillac & Porsche, for different reasons.
Great, does this mean I won’t see people drive around Boulder openly using pipes?
(Well, then again, we are talking Boulder, where one of the main attractions is a Rasta street performer who folds himself into a clear plastic box…he was deported for a while, and you just would never be able to guess what for…)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smzqx-juAZw
Eventually there will be some incident where some stoner takes out a family of six on their way to church, and then you’ll see some enforcement.
I saw that guy last summer. I didn’t hang around for the box finale, tho.
Seattle police did way better stickers for Doritos they handed out at Hempfest in 2013 http://blog.seattlepi.com/marijuana/2013/08/19/marijuana-laws-make-your-own-seattle-police-special-edition-bag-o-chips/#14194101=0&15026103=0
“This sticker is not a lawyer and cannot provide you with legal advice”
“Don’t: Use pot in public. You could be cited but we would rather give you a warning”
“Do: Listen to the Dark Side of the Moon at reasonable volume”
“Warning: The contents of this bag are as delicious as they appear”
“Average cost of a DUI = $10,270”
The DUI industry in a nutshell.
I’ve got no problem with that. Seems like an appropriate punishment for something that causes so much carnage nationwide.
I do. The appropriate punishment for carnage is jail.
When that punishment is made a payday instead, human nature being what it is, the exercise rapidly evolves from stopping carnage into getting itself paid more. That’s given us checkpoints. It’s given us an ever broadening definition of DUI that’s now well into the absurd – in this state you can be charged for blowing a .04. That isn’t even buzzed. In Colorado you can apparently be charged for smoking a joint the previous day. Worst of all, it’s given a streamlined court process to take your payment and get you back on the road ASAP and the dangerously impaired who actually cause that carnage breeze through it just as smoothly as the harmless customers do.
It’s no different from what now goes on with speed enforcement – the highway patrol hides in the bushes along straight highways in broad daylight and the cameras go on underposted roads at the bottom of hills. It doesn’t matter where the wrecks were when that’s where the money is.
Or unmarked police cars.
Look, you may pull over one person every 30 min(?), that didn’t see you. In the meantime everyone else is still “dangerously” speeding.
Put a marked, open police car with high visibility and everyone is more likely to slow down – won’t make that $.
And I’d rather a crime not be committed because they saw a cop, than you maybe catch someone after they commit said crime because they didn’t see you.
Can’t wait for driverless cars so we can really see the open grapple for money within the automotive justice world.
#1 pretty much sums up what it is all about, money, not safety.
You’re surprised?
“its illegal to smoke, eat, dab, vape in public”
It’s illegal to eat in public?
In communications classes we learn about understood meaning by subject. In this case, since the subject is obviously marijuana, it is easily understood that “eating” refers to ingestion of said substance.
This occurred to me after I posted (and left for the gym) but I feel this should have been made clearer in the sentence. Just as easy to say “eat buds”, “eat leaves”, or better “its illegal to smoke, dab, vape, or otherwise consume in public”. Not trying to me a grammar zealot, I suppose to the intended audience of stoners this made sense.
My guess is they are talking about “edibles” – pot brownies, candy, cookies, ect infused with weed.
Let’s see here , what would give away a stoned driver? What behavioral evidence might a policeman notice? I would suppose if said vehicle was doing the speed limit , staying perfectly centered in its lane , and driving non-aggressively and maintaining proper distance. That would stand out among all the other aggressive and/or drunk drivers. A vehicle strictly abiding by all traffic laws? …. quick , pull him over and check for marijuana use! That behavior traffic would describe me when I’m stoned and driving. Of course when road tripping in neighboring states , ( particularly Oklahoma and Nebraska ), my Colorado plates are probably evidence enough .
“Let’s see here , what would give away a stoned driver?”
Trying to drive while eating a huge microwave burrito. So busted.
I’m not condoning driving while high, but traffic fatalities are down about 15+% in CO since legalization.
Traffic fatalities in states with some form of legal marijuana have trended lower than states that have maintained complete prohibition.
The NHTSA did a study and did not find marijuana use results increased accidents.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/02/nhtsa-marijuana-use-not-likely-increase-accident-risk/
Again, I don’t condone it, but given the vast numbers of people that have, do and will use marijuana, traffic accidents do not appear to be a signifiant issue. What is the cause. Hard to say. Maybe “sober” is not the de facto best driving state. Maybe driving high is not ideal, but the people that would have driven drunk are maybe substituting to make a statistical difference.
Marijuana acts completely differently than alcohol. Alcohol has the very dangerous combination of increasing reaction time, lowering inhibitions and removing/lowering risk tolerance. That is what makes it deadly. Marijuana may lower reaction times, but like old people, it may be compensated. Who knows – but the numbers and studies don’t show its the next “danger” (especially since pot has been used for decades prior to legalization)
What i find disturbing is the automatic lumping of marijuana related DUI into the same penalty as alcohol DUI. I’d think many would balk at giving texting tickets the same severity, and yet they have been found to be as dangerous (or more so) than marijuana.
They missed the most important rule: do only one illegal activity at a time.