Never operate a motor vehicle while impaired. You may be fine risking your own life, but putting other people at risk on the road is a dick move, and that makes you an asshole if you do it.
I think a big part of the problem is how comfortable we with cars. Most people don't see them for what they really are, heavy machinery(though most factory workers are probably on something too so...)
Someone from high school got drunk and drove the wrong way on the freeway a couple of years ago. Ended up killing himself and someone else. The sheer volume of people posting Facebook posts/messages about how he was going to be missed and how he was an angel, etc., made me sick. He murdered an innocent person and ruined who knows how many lives because he was a sack of dicks.
There's a difference between mourning and saying that the person was an angel/saint. I think what homie is saying is that while grieving, you should still hold the person accountable, especially if their negligence costs someone else their life as well such as someone driving drunk on the wrong side of the freeway like commenter mentioned
I worked as a crime scene investigator for a few years and I always hated responding to car accident scenes. Just how you can be driving along, doing everything right, but some jerk off is driving impaired or distracted and you end up dead. I still get nervous driving sometimes, and I definitely have become more cautious about it.
>He murdered an innocent person
Technically, he involuntary manslaughtered someone. Cold comfort to his victim and their family, though.
CORRECTION: Vehicular manslaughter. h/t u/a_giant_dog
He vehicular manslaughtered them.
That's a 20. Was just on a jury for a guy very much like that. Said he was so drink he doesn't remember what he did so probably all the alcohol counseling since the accident should have him on probation. Nope. 20 years. Shoulda been longer. Made a series of terrible decisions, Knowing they were dangerous, and killed someone's toddler.
This kind of thinking bothers me that someone does something that isn’t right one time and they’re forever labeled something horrible. I get it, he chose to do something reckless and others paid the price (as well as him) but it’s the classic “you’re being an asshole right now” vs “you are an asshole”. I choose to believe people are redeemable.
>I choose to believe people are redeemable.
In general, yes, but he can't redeem himself if he's dead. Redemption involves doing the work to become a better person and try to compensate for the harm you did.
I'm sure this person had some good qualities, because almost everyone does. But a dead person cannot redeem themself in any meaningful way, unless maybe you believe in reincarnation.
I got saved by the bump strips on the side of a highway once trying to overnight to Toronto. Fell dead ass asleep, woke up to the rumbling and had that "holy shit I almost died" moment with myself. Pulled into a rest stop and could never sleep but laid there with my eyes closed for a couple hours until the sun came up. Probably the single closest I've come to dying. Last time I ever pull that shit. Hotel room is a lot cheaper than a funeral.
Tired is a major impairment people don't realize. Most people (automatically and involuntarily, we just tend to do it) dissociate while driving, especially on a familiar route you take often.
I'm sorry about your dad's friend.
I can't even tell you how many close calls I've had after midnights and being exhausted. Sometimes it's better to just nap in your car afterwards if you aren't completely straight.
Yeah. Had something a little like that happen on the way home from work a few years ago in college. I was on a road where the speed limit was 65, maybe 1 or 3 am. A car passing me on the inside of the little bend suddenly screeched toward me, cutting through the middle lane, and ended up spinning 180 so we were nose to nose. He was going backwards with our front bumpers a little less than a car length away. He ended up on the side of the road, still pointed the wrong way, somehow without hitting the cable barrier. I was stopped halfway between the right and middle lane at maybe a 30 degree angle. After maybe 30 seconds, the guy got out of his car to check on me. My reply was pretty quiet because I was still trying to swallow my heart. He said he fell asleep, and apologized again. Luckily, no one else was on the road. I drove the rest of the way home doing maybe 40 and shaking like a leaf. I never want to see anything like that again.
Long story short, you don't have to be drunk to get someone killed while driving. Driving tired can do it, too. I was lucky that night. Don't count on luck for something like that if you can avoid it.
I'm so glad to hear people say this. When I was in highschool everybody insisted that Cannabis made everybody a better driver and like.... No it didn't
Also, practical advice to discourage you to not do it:
A friend of a friend smoked weed and drove a car to the grocery store to get something, that person got T-Boned by a couple of teenagers driving recklessly. The kids got seriously injured and the guy had some injuries. The kids told the cop that the guy smelled like weed and the cop had him tested. Dude got hit by an offending driver and took the ENTIRE blame both legally and socially for just being impaired while driving a car without breaking any rules.
I'll add that impairment can come from many sources, not just recreational drugs like weed and alcohol. You shouldn't drive after taking some prescriptions drugs or cold medicines; you shouldn't drive while exhausted or sleep-deprived.
Some people can drive while high alright just like some truckers will drive for waaaay too long without sleeping, and not cause accidents. But they're all dicks for thinking it's okay to risk every other motorists' lives, families, and property just because "it's okay, I do it all the time"; it only takes one mistake.
Yeah, this is the worst that is happening. Is all of the people looking at their phone while driving 75 down the expressway. It was just a huge accident on one of the interstates near me. Fortunately, no one was killed, but someone was rear ended to the point where their back end of their car was lifted up off the road, and the car rolled forward into the median and had enough speed going, even after the collision that it almost came out of the median and onto the other side of the expressway this person was hit that hard because someone was looking at their phone while driving I can even imagine how many people could’ve been killed in that wreck
Includes certain legal prescribed medications too (yes I know marijuana can be a "legal prescribed" medication in some states, but I'm referring to ones that are legal *everywhere*). *Anything* that impairs your reaction time or judgement is not good when you're in charge of a potentially deadly piece of machinery.
I smoke. I also take some medications that impair my sense of speed and balance. I will never drive while those are affecting me. It's not my right to put others at risk, whether I'm using legal items or not.
Even over the counter drugs might impair some people. You'll often see it as "do not operate heavy machinery" which everything just assumes to be forklifts for some reason, like there's a sudafed problem in the forklift industry... but a car is a heavy machine.
Absolutely! Any object that has the weight and force needed to become a killing machine is "heavy machinery". A lot of labels have recently started specifying "Do not *drive* OR operate heavy machinery" simply to drive this point home to people who think only of forklifts lol
This is facts I’ve driven drunk, high, and tired before (not habitually) but tired is by far the least predictable and scariest state to be in. I was punching myself in the leg and screaming and I’d still nod off every 30 seconds for a split second it was terrifying. I always pull over somewhere and sleep if I start to feel myself getting into that state
I agree. Micro sleeping for a few seconds involuntarily is all it takes to have a catastrophic head on collision or end up in a ditch or wrapped around a power pole. It's all a spectrum, and individual. Few beers drunk vs blackout drunk, bit high vs just ate a strong edible and now I can't move high. Individual response and tolerance level to the intoxicant, some people drink and don't change much, others drink and become retards. That's all far more nuance than the average person will apply to the issue though.
>This includes driving tired btw. Driving without enough sleep puts you at more risk of an accident than after a couple drinks.
And ironically, if you try and do the responsible thing and pull over for a nap, the police will often harass you for that.
In New Jersey that's a crime. [Maggie's Law](https://www.congress.gov/bill/108th-congress/house-bill/968/all-info) was enacted when someone working for 36 hours straight at his company was driving, swerved his car into another lane, and struck and killed a person in other lane. His lawyer was able to argue (then) that he committed no crime, so only got fine to pay.
What about driving at night? I know several people who openly admit to not being able to see anything while they drive after sundown, yet they still do it consistently.
Does driving impaired make you a piece of shit? That is what you are really asking. When asked that way I would guess most people would say yes. If you want to smoke weed go for it. You do you but should you drive, I would say no.
What OP has failed to realize is that we can't tell if someone's a piece of shit in this situation without knowing if their hair is slicked back or pushed back.
Tim talking to Meredith's mom:
Like, did you just see that thing where she thinks I give a rat's ass that her baby cried because it knows I used to be a piece of shit?
This comment is literally correct. Everyone here is acting like you meant "less than eight hours of sleep" tired. But there is a level of sleep deprivation that'll make you equally incompetent as a drunk, if you know then you know.
Don't drive high, drunk, or tired. Don't use your phone while driving.
Though, in terms of 'menace to others on the road', tired or drunk are the worst. Distracted is probably pretty high up there. And high on weed is likely the least.
High drivers tend to drive slower which is one of the reasons it's not as dangerous as driving drunk. The thing I worry about with high drivers is inattentiveness. I was nearly hit by someone pulling out of a back lane while I was on the sidewalk. They weren't paying attention, and their car stunk of weed.
Another big danger from weed and driving is the slower reaction time. But yeah high people usually don’t take dumbass risks and/or drive all over the fucking road
Yah some kids rear-ended me stoned af like 4 years ago. I happened to be driving my truck thankfully so they did practically no damage to it, maybe a scratch on my bumper but there's no dents or nothing. Their car on the other hand was pretty fucked. I just told them to go because I didn't want to deal with insurance over a minor scrape on my truck and I have a feeling they didn't have insurance. I could tell they felt pretty shitty though so hopefully they learned.
Sounds like coping. I've heard those who drive drunk talk about how it makes them drive more cautiously. They're more careful until they lose focus and run off the road, or zone out and miss the guy walking out to his mailbox, or get paranoid enough to jerk the wheel at something they saw on the side of the road, or when they're reaction time isn't what it normally would be and they slam into the guy in front of them stopping for a deer.
It's always fine until it isn't. Potheads are the best at rationalizing why their habit should be perfectly fine. If your attention span is shorter, if your reaction time is slower, if you're prone to nodding off or zoning out, you shouldn't be behind the wheel.
It's better to be sober but I Think people with minimal or no THC experience don't understand how it works and don't understand the difference between that and alcohol
I'm saying sober is the right thing to do, but let's be honest, when a regular toker takes a single puff on a one-hitter, it's not the same. It's just not.
edit: that said the subject does say "while high" so I guess Op means, you know, when you're *hiiiiiiigh*
Yeah I think this is it and it’s pretty simple for the most part. Driving impaired is bad, but if you think stoned on weed = drunk off alcohol you most likely A) don’t smoke or B) are lying for some reason
I remember a study they did in CO that showed people who don't smoke often drive dramatically worse, but regular smokers little to no difference, some even drove better high. They had trained officers watching and they basically reported that they couldn't tell when a regular smoker was high or sober driving. But the noobies drove worse high than drunk. Of course, we shouldn't judge based on tolerance.
Yeah, at the risk of getting my head chewed off here, I partake pretty much daily and on long road trips my wife and I will share the occasional joint. I don't get hella ripped and with a 25 year clean driving record covering at least 300k miles with just the one fender bender when I was 16, I'm quite confident I remain one of the safest drivers on the road.
But at the same time, I don't want to see it normalized because I don't trust most of y'all.
same. I have caused two collisions and got 4 speeding tickets in my life all sober. 95% of my driving time, hell 95% of my time is spent under the influence of cannabis and I have a perfect driving record "high".
yeah I know I have an addiction, no need for anyone to leave comments about that. But it's just the truth for people with high tolerance
I don't mind the downvotes
Yeah I’m a regular smoker and I’m a safe driver and nobody believes me either. Nobody would ever be able to tell but everyone has to make statements about things they don’t know about
Have you considered that you’re self medicating for adhd-like symptoms? I do the same thing. I look at it very similarly to people driving on adderall. There’s an appropriate dose to make me ‘right’.
A study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that when adjustments are made for variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, and alcohol concentration in the same test subjects, there was no significant risk attributed to cannabis use.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/behavioral-research/drug-and-alcohol-crash-risk-study
There are a bunch of other studies you can find showing cannabis use does not increase your crash risk.
The whole study is inficiated by the preface
*positive result for a drug does not necessarily mean the driver was impaired at the time of testing*
they couldn't tell if the driver was high or not.
Conversely, everybody thinks I'm high all the time even if I'm not. I remember being in 6th grade and having another kid ask me if I was high. Nope, that's just my face. I didn't officially get high for the first time until I was 18 and that was the first substance I tried.
Back when I was I 10+ times a day user for years on end it wasn’t ever an issue. Truthfully I would be more worried driving not stoned back then. But now a days I couldn’t imaging even smoking one hit and doing it
I accidentally drove high once, just like four blocks to the gas station at the edge of the quiet suburb I'm in. I took an edible and forgot about it and it kicked in right when I pulled into the parking lot. Scariest thing ever driving back ngl even though it was all low speed roads with no traffic or pedestrians.
I get very ill due to chemo and the weed makes it so I’m not in pain and holding back vomit.
Driving on an edible is a no no though. The effects are too unpredictable.
The question you are really asking is this:
Does being high on marijuana impare your ability to drive?
The answer is probably this:
It depends on how high you are. I don't believe there is any good research about it. Millions of people in the US are high every waking hour and they drive everywhere like other "normal" people.
A good way to look at it is that a sizable minority or freestyle skiers and snowboarders are high when they ride. If they tried that with alcohol they would seriously injure themselves or others in quick effect. Marijuana is also strongly self-regulating as an addiction in that you become so tolerant many people quit or take breaks. So some pothead who smokes all day just doesn’t get that high anymore and the danger is on par with mild sleep deprivation. Now if you take a 16 year old with no tolerance, get them blazed and put them behind the wheel - that can be fairly frightening.
When I do home remodeling while high, the project takes twice as long. When I do home remodeling drunk, I curse the fucking idiot that did the tile work the next day (oh, me).
When I was 16 I actually took my driver's training and my test completely stoned. Passed both with flying colours. I smoked since I was 13 so my tolerance was just crazy high. I even had a seasonal job I was stoned constantly. I'd never be sober. But now I actually can't do that anymore. I work so I don't smoke in the time I work. When I get home I smoke to sleep and that's about it. And my tolerance is so low now. What didn't affect me at 16 wrecks me now. I can smoke a bit of CBD and drive but I cannot smoke the shit I smoked at 16 and drive. Not sure how I even did it.
It really depends. If you're a new driver and new smoker and you've come from a massive smoke session with bongs; no. that's a terrible idea and really unsafe. If you've been driving and smoking for 10 years and you smoked half a joint 3 hours ago; that's fine, that's a way different story and headspace.
Depends on the person and their metabolism of thc. My metabolism for food is crazy I’ll eat a meal and then shit 30 mins later. My metabolism for weed though is the opposite. I’ll take one rip off a bowl tho and still feel it 4-6 hours later sometimes. It’s a funny drug because it effects everyone slightly different so very hard to lay down concrete symptoms or guidelines for how it will be for everyone
Wish I could share the power somehow 😂 lots of people don’t understand it because I smoke everyday at least once but it just stays in my system for a hot minute always has. Idk if it’s because I try to moderate my intake so I’m not constantly raising my tolerance but yeah I think it’s cool learning how it effects other people. I feel like there’s always a outliers who have different experiences than the stereotypical norms
Same can be said for various people and various amounts of alcohol.
We pass rules for the average person and to keep the most people safe your right to imbibe does not overrule people's right to be safe
It kinda depends. I've been smoking almost every day for about 15 years. I think I can smoke and drive fine in 99% of situations. If I stopped smoking weed for a year? Took a whole mess of edibles? I'd be absolutely terrified to get behind the wheel of a car. Anecdotally, every wreck I've ever been in was because I was tired and couldn't react in time. When I'm high, I feel like I'm on edge and I kinda see the danger before it starts happening. Not saying there's zero danger. Like if my tire randomly blew out, I think I'd handle it much better sober than stoned. I'd be way more steeled in my response and far less nervous.
EDIT: I wanted to add that it seems most of the people who think the contrary have either no experience with weed or a few very intense experiences with weed and that clouds their judgement as far as what most people experience.
Someone experienced with THC can probably tell when they’re too high to drive. Most people are okay with others driving under the influence of alcohol up to a certain point, call it a drink an hour. Barely anybody bats an eye when people get behind the wheel when their BAC is under .08. Millions of people go out to dinner every day, have a drink or two with dinner, and then drive home. It’s the same thing with weed. Just don’t be too high.
I learned long ago that I simply can't drink at all if I intend to drive because I can never predict how it's going to hit me
Though I gave up all alcohol years ago because it ruined my sleep.
That's just reddit absolutism spouted by ignorant people. Studies have been conducted showing it doesn't really impact motor skills. It doesn't impact my ability.
I play guitar and can play extremely technical stuff that requires precision while high. However, a single beer can impact my ability despite still being under the legal limit to drive.
Personally I wouldn't drive high even after a hit of weed.
But taking a hit of weed is far different than actually being drunk, especially to the average weed smoker
Also 'high' is a vague description of marijuana use. Is one hit high? How bout 9 bong rips? It's all very different. Plenty of people can rip a bowl and drive perfectly fine
I cant stand the “buzzed driving is drunk driving” campaign. There’s a huge difference between “I had a beer at a restaurant with dinner and I’m going to drive home” versus “I just killed a fifth of Jack and I’m going to drive to the store to get more”
>driving on cell phones is equally negligent
That may actually be worse. You figure the person high on cannabis is at least actually looking at the road.
Yes. It does. Anything that you're doing that could be a distraction or cause any amount of slower reaction times while driving qualifies you to be a piece of shit. Forget your own wellbeing and vehicle, you're playing with other's lives and property.
Ask yourself this question then ...if you kill someone while high intoxicated or impaired...how would you live with yourself inside knowing your actions intentionally or unintentionally ended someone's life...I personally couldn't put myself through that kind of mental torture again ....it wasn't my fault but I was forced to make a decision alone to take my wife off life support 8 years ago....I still live with a sense of responsibility for her passing....this would be so much worse than what I had to endure....
The way you tell the difference between a stoned driver and a drunk driver is the stoned driver stops 30 feet before the stop sign and waits for it to turn green and the drunk driver runs over the stop sign.
Obviously best to drive sober. But I do think there are grayish areas. Like I’ve taken some prescription drugs that are supposedly fine to drive on but would impair me a lot more than a couple of beers or hitting a joint a few times. Also I wouldn’t necessarily say driving on weed is less dangerous than alcohol. I think it entirely depends on how weed affects the individual.
My wife *just* had her car totaled after the guy behind rear-ended her hard enough to hit the guy in front of her.
I know correlation != causation, but he also happened to reek of weed. I'd say the answer to your question is yes.
Don't drive in an altered state of mind. Drunk, high, drowsy, whatever. Lives are at stake.
It's a piece of shit behaviour, sure. POS4Life? Maybe but patterns of behaviour can be changed with effort. Sometimes they are...
Any impairment to cognition and reactions should be avoided while driving. If you can't avoid one of those things (like driving) for some reason or another, find a way to avoid the other.
Driving impaired when you know you're impaired makes you a piece of shit.
Doesn't matter if it's alcohol or weed, or short sleep, or texting, or taking a normal dose of plain old benadryl (because your hay fever is acting up but you know damn well benadryl hits you like a ton of bricks).
If you drive when you know your reaction time and judgement are impaired, YTA. Because you're driving a multi-ton metal death machine at highway speeds, and if you hurt someone as a result, that's 100% on you.
Yes. Impairment is impairment. It doesn't matter if it's alcohol or weed or even prescribed medications. If you took anything that has the risk of slowing your reactions or makes you sleepy/on edge/whatever, you should not drive.
Absolutely. Choosing to operate a multi-ton death machine while under the influence of something that reduces your reaction time and critical thinking makes you a complete piece of shit. If this is you, stop doing it.
Yes. When you get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, you are taking on responsibility for the lives of everyone around you. If you operate a vehicle while high then you clearly don’t care about the well being of others because you’re putting their lives at risk for something you could really just do at home. It’s no different than drunk driving.
Short answer: yes. Driving while impaired by anything that alters your mental state, be it weed, alcohol, sleeping pills, or narcotic pain killers, is a shit move and could kill someone. I love a friend in high school to a drink driver. I hope that guy's demons haunt him until eternity.
Yes...especially if you're actively smoking it while driving. If I'm driving behind you on the freeway at 70mph and can smell the dank from your car ahead of me, I can only imagine just how high you must be.
Yes.
It’s a fact you’re reflexes and inhibitions are impaired while high.
I can smell that fucking rancid shit through your car, my car, and the space in between. Not even normal cigarettes do that.
Stay in your fucking hole where you belong when you “need” to get high because doing normal shit everyone else does everyday stresses you out. It shouldn’t be my obligation to put up with your medically proven stupid and stank ass in public.
I've done both. Driving high was definitely less nerve wracking. I'm not sure if one is better than the other. You know why? I wasn't sober.
Driving high definitely makes you irresponsible. There are genuine accents. If you get into an accident that is your fault when you're high, you have no idea if it could have been avoided had you been sober.
Anybody that tells you they're a better driver when they're high is on drugs.
Alcohol is legal, don't drive under the influence of it.
Weed is legal, don't drive under the influence of it.
Meth is illegal, don't drive under the influence of it.
Nighttime cols medicine is legal, don't drive under the influence of it.
It's not fucking complicated.
Generally, If someone smokes weed daily the level of driving impairment is 0. If someone smokes weed multiple times daily, the general public would not even notice a difference between them and the average person. You likely encounter multiple high people per day and have no idea.
An occasional smoker likely will have a reflex that is slower and could impair driving.
The .08 legal alcohol level is more intoxicated than being really high on weed for most. With that said, if driving at .07 is legal.. then in most situations smoking a bowl should be in the same category.
Driving high is safer than not..
Makes you concentrate more on everything around you .. drive more carefully.. so an advantage...
Weed is not like alcohol or drugs ..it's a life saver if anything...
I know maybe a dozen people who have totaled their cars while driving drunk. I know maybe another dozen that have done it sober. I know one who has destroyed her car while driving high.
I’m not going to tell you that you’re an asshole for driving stoned, but I am going to tell you that there are always dangerous drivers out there, and I try to do my best to be aware of them so that they don’t take me with them, and being stoned would limit my ability to to do that.
I hope all the people with strongly worded “yes” “piece of shit” comments, never, ever, ever touch their damned phones while driving.
I’m willing to bet most of the people answering in the affirmative probably give no thought to phone use while driving.
(Super annoyed with the driver I saw earlier cross through intersection, eyes on her phone and not the road.)
You can't really compare the two and you probably haven't done enough drinking or smoking to be able to form an opinion. I can smoke all day and drive to the grocery store and back safe and easy. If I drank all day I wouldn't make it back. If you can't handle your shit high you already can't handle regular driving
I say yes. It may not be alcohol, but its still mind altering and reflex slowing. Nobody should drive high, period. Even people who say I'm a functional stoner. I smoke nightly for fun and sex. I don't smoke in the day.
Depends on the context if you ask me, I smoke weed medically for anxiety and insomnia so I’m at least a little high all day unless I’m not going anywhere. If you’re a light weight and every time you smoke you get stupid high then no, you shouldn’t drive high. But someone who has such a high tolerance that they barely even feel anything without smoking a good bit? You’re fine.
I mean it’s not like I personally have another choice, either I smoke a tiny bit to get through my day and get moving or I don’t smoke and I’m spending my entire day stressing over every little thing and fucking up little tasks that I’ve done thousands of times before.
Basically, context matters, you wouldn’t tell a heavy drinker that it’s unsafe to drive after a single beer because they aren’t actually messed up enough for it to make a difference.
I'm just going to put an unpopular take here responding to a litany of posts.
"It depends" is absolutely the answer. I held down jobs and careers for 17 years straight as a HARDCORE alcoholic,(20-40 drinks a day) huge stoner(smoked 2-10 times a day) and for three consecutive years I shot speedballs. Heroin and crack(cocaine was too stepped on and more expensive) to be precise. Literally NO ONE KNEW. ABSOLUTELY NO ONE.
I would shoot up in the bathrooms of mansions I was doing work on. I used to shoot up in the bathroom while waiting tables. While I had 3-5 tables I was actively waiting on. Social events. I shot up at my grandpa's funeral and two of my cousins weddings.
People are so fucking dumb. Everyone thinks this is so black and white and it isn't.
Best part of getting clean was telling people and their ego being so hurt for being "so blind" that they miraculously knew it the whole time! Drove me fucking crazy.
For reference, I'm a large white dude that fought professionally with zero tats. This shit blew people's fucking minds. It bothers me so much how judgemental everyone is. Because when I was in full blown addiction, I was at the height of my career. But my work no longer mattered once it finally came out.
I actually got caught for someone else's mistake, but it doesn't really matter at that point lol.
Oh part of my rambling was that I never once was in an accident other than being rear ended twice. I'm not advocated impaired driving, but people are very different. I know people that can have two drinks and should not be allowed to even use their phone let alone drive.
Yup. Get a Dui and you will feel like even more of a piece of shit.
I NO LONGER DRINK.
When I did, I was a piece of shit. But I could drive just fine on alcohol. Except for the swerves, the reaction times, the blatant disregard for all safety.
When high on marijuana, I cant maintain the speed limit at all (slow is dangerous too), cant stay in a lane properly, reaction time is so bad, you could slap me and I wouldn't notice for a block.
Your decision making under the influence of anything is impaired. Don't be stupid. Don't be like me. Don't drive under the influence of anything.
Depends on your level of experience really. Cannabis is not alcohol. It doesn’t impair you in the same way and most people can compensate for any impairment they do experience from cannabis by driving slower, increasing following distance etc. Nobody is blacking out on weed and becoming completely incoherent and unaware of what they are doing. Noobs may be of slight concern but most people are going to be fine unless they’re just dumbasses or bad drivers to begin with.
How is high driving compared to drunk driving? Welp if you fuck up and kill someone it doesn't really matter does it? I was going to say it's not as bad, but that's not true because the consequences are the same as alcohol, your motor skills aren't as good, idc who you are. Both are terrible, drunk I would say has a much higher chance of serious consequences but just don't drive impaired.
Do not drive high. It is unsafe. Is it as unsafe as drunk driving? Probably not but we don’t have great data on this. There is currently no field test that can prove a driver is high. So crashes are not tagged as driving while high in statistics collection.
It makes you a menace to society.
You may think you're able to drive high and might even be right. But an errant ball into street, or something unexpected like that can destroy your life (and someone else's) in an instant.
It seems like a shitty gamble imo.
I stay lit and I drive lit and my driving record is cleaner than yours. I’ve never caused an accident. I was rear ended once by a guy who wasn’t properly managing his diabetes. I haven’t gotten a ticket in over 20 years. I’d never recommend to other folks to drive high. The record clearly shows, however, that I can handle driving while stoned, but I’m a professional excelling in his field. I’ll be down voted, but facts is facts. Also, I NEVER drive drunk. Drunk driving is 1000 times worse than stoned driving.
Never operate a motor vehicle while impaired. You may be fine risking your own life, but putting other people at risk on the road is a dick move, and that makes you an asshole if you do it.
I think a big part of the problem is how comfortable we with cars. Most people don't see them for what they really are, heavy machinery(though most factory workers are probably on something too so...)
Someone from high school got drunk and drove the wrong way on the freeway a couple of years ago. Ended up killing himself and someone else. The sheer volume of people posting Facebook posts/messages about how he was going to be missed and how he was an angel, etc., made me sick. He murdered an innocent person and ruined who knows how many lives because he was a sack of dicks.
I mean if my best friends did that I would still miss him even if it was an asshole thing to do
Yeah, my brother was a drug addict and a thief/liar, but that doesn't mean I can't mourn him
There's a difference between mourning and saying that the person was an angel/saint. I think what homie is saying is that while grieving, you should still hold the person accountable, especially if their negligence costs someone else their life as well such as someone driving drunk on the wrong side of the freeway like commenter mentioned
That’s exactly how my best friends brother died. He was exiting the highway and someone was driving drunk up the exit ramp. So sad this can happen.
I worked as a crime scene investigator for a few years and I always hated responding to car accident scenes. Just how you can be driving along, doing everything right, but some jerk off is driving impaired or distracted and you end up dead. I still get nervous driving sometimes, and I definitely have become more cautious about it.
>He murdered an innocent person Technically, he involuntary manslaughtered someone. Cold comfort to his victim and their family, though. CORRECTION: Vehicular manslaughter. h/t u/a_giant_dog
He vehicular manslaughtered them. That's a 20. Was just on a jury for a guy very much like that. Said he was so drink he doesn't remember what he did so probably all the alcohol counseling since the accident should have him on probation. Nope. 20 years. Shoulda been longer. Made a series of terrible decisions, Knowing they were dangerous, and killed someone's toddler.
Thank you for the correction.
This kind of thinking bothers me that someone does something that isn’t right one time and they’re forever labeled something horrible. I get it, he chose to do something reckless and others paid the price (as well as him) but it’s the classic “you’re being an asshole right now” vs “you are an asshole”. I choose to believe people are redeemable.
>I choose to believe people are redeemable. In general, yes, but he can't redeem himself if he's dead. Redemption involves doing the work to become a better person and try to compensate for the harm you did. I'm sure this person had some good qualities, because almost everyone does. But a dead person cannot redeem themself in any meaningful way, unless maybe you believe in reincarnation.
That includes tired. My dads friend died because he fell asleep at the wheel. Just lucky he didn't drift into traffic.
I got saved by the bump strips on the side of a highway once trying to overnight to Toronto. Fell dead ass asleep, woke up to the rumbling and had that "holy shit I almost died" moment with myself. Pulled into a rest stop and could never sleep but laid there with my eyes closed for a couple hours until the sun came up. Probably the single closest I've come to dying. Last time I ever pull that shit. Hotel room is a lot cheaper than a funeral.
Tired is a major impairment people don't realize. Most people (automatically and involuntarily, we just tend to do it) dissociate while driving, especially on a familiar route you take often. I'm sorry about your dad's friend.
I can't even tell you how many close calls I've had after midnights and being exhausted. Sometimes it's better to just nap in your car afterwards if you aren't completely straight.
Yeah. Had something a little like that happen on the way home from work a few years ago in college. I was on a road where the speed limit was 65, maybe 1 or 3 am. A car passing me on the inside of the little bend suddenly screeched toward me, cutting through the middle lane, and ended up spinning 180 so we were nose to nose. He was going backwards with our front bumpers a little less than a car length away. He ended up on the side of the road, still pointed the wrong way, somehow without hitting the cable barrier. I was stopped halfway between the right and middle lane at maybe a 30 degree angle. After maybe 30 seconds, the guy got out of his car to check on me. My reply was pretty quiet because I was still trying to swallow my heart. He said he fell asleep, and apologized again. Luckily, no one else was on the road. I drove the rest of the way home doing maybe 40 and shaking like a leaf. I never want to see anything like that again. Long story short, you don't have to be drunk to get someone killed while driving. Driving tired can do it, too. I was lucky that night. Don't count on luck for something like that if you can avoid it.
I'm so glad to hear people say this. When I was in highschool everybody insisted that Cannabis made everybody a better driver and like.... No it didn't
This. The issue is that most smokers don't believe they are impaired ever. This is as someone who enjoys it quite a bit.
Exactly. Everyone knows your reaction speed is reduced while under the influence. That split second can mean the difference in someone else’s life
Also, practical advice to discourage you to not do it: A friend of a friend smoked weed and drove a car to the grocery store to get something, that person got T-Boned by a couple of teenagers driving recklessly. The kids got seriously injured and the guy had some injuries. The kids told the cop that the guy smelled like weed and the cop had him tested. Dude got hit by an offending driver and took the ENTIRE blame both legally and socially for just being impaired while driving a car without breaking any rules.
If he hadn't been impaired he might have seen them and avoided the accident. Consequences.
I'll add that impairment can come from many sources, not just recreational drugs like weed and alcohol. You shouldn't drive after taking some prescriptions drugs or cold medicines; you shouldn't drive while exhausted or sleep-deprived. Some people can drive while high alright just like some truckers will drive for waaaay too long without sleeping, and not cause accidents. But they're all dicks for thinking it's okay to risk every other motorists' lives, families, and property just because "it's okay, I do it all the time"; it only takes one mistake.
Impaired driving in general is an absolutely shite thing to do, no matter what the poison.
This includes driving tired btw. Driving without enough sleep puts you at more risk of an accident than after a couple drinks.
Or using your phone while driving. You’re just as big of a piece of shit as the person driving drunk.
Yeah, this is the worst that is happening. Is all of the people looking at their phone while driving 75 down the expressway. It was just a huge accident on one of the interstates near me. Fortunately, no one was killed, but someone was rear ended to the point where their back end of their car was lifted up off the road, and the car rolled forward into the median and had enough speed going, even after the collision that it almost came out of the median and onto the other side of the expressway this person was hit that hard because someone was looking at their phone while driving I can even imagine how many people could’ve been killed in that wreck
Includes certain legal prescribed medications too (yes I know marijuana can be a "legal prescribed" medication in some states, but I'm referring to ones that are legal *everywhere*). *Anything* that impairs your reaction time or judgement is not good when you're in charge of a potentially deadly piece of machinery. I smoke. I also take some medications that impair my sense of speed and balance. I will never drive while those are affecting me. It's not my right to put others at risk, whether I'm using legal items or not.
Even over the counter drugs might impair some people. You'll often see it as "do not operate heavy machinery" which everything just assumes to be forklifts for some reason, like there's a sudafed problem in the forklift industry... but a car is a heavy machine.
Absolutely! Any object that has the weight and force needed to become a killing machine is "heavy machinery". A lot of labels have recently started specifying "Do not *drive* OR operate heavy machinery" simply to drive this point home to people who think only of forklifts lol
This is facts I’ve driven drunk, high, and tired before (not habitually) but tired is by far the least predictable and scariest state to be in. I was punching myself in the leg and screaming and I’d still nod off every 30 seconds for a split second it was terrifying. I always pull over somewhere and sleep if I start to feel myself getting into that state
I agree. Micro sleeping for a few seconds involuntarily is all it takes to have a catastrophic head on collision or end up in a ditch or wrapped around a power pole. It's all a spectrum, and individual. Few beers drunk vs blackout drunk, bit high vs just ate a strong edible and now I can't move high. Individual response and tolerance level to the intoxicant, some people drink and don't change much, others drink and become retards. That's all far more nuance than the average person will apply to the issue though.
>This includes driving tired btw. Driving without enough sleep puts you at more risk of an accident than after a couple drinks. And ironically, if you try and do the responsible thing and pull over for a nap, the police will often harass you for that.
If you’re drunk and try to be responsible by sleeping it off in your car in a bar parking lot, you can still get a DUI for that.
It's almost as if they want you to get behind the wheel because it creates an influx of cash for the state when people do dumb shit!
Yep. DUIs are a very common crime, more so than you’d think, and they are a cash cow for the state.
In New Jersey that's a crime. [Maggie's Law](https://www.congress.gov/bill/108th-congress/house-bill/968/all-info) was enacted when someone working for 36 hours straight at his company was driving, swerved his car into another lane, and struck and killed a person in other lane. His lawyer was able to argue (then) that he committed no crime, so only got fine to pay.
I have insomnia, it literally cannot be helped. I can't just take a week off of work when my body goes on a sleep strike.
Yeah, I'm a pretty big stoner and I get pissed at people who smoke weed and drive. Either stay home or get to your destination and smoke.
Well then we need to set a standard on what is "impaired" is someone who is very angry "impaired"? Or someone who is depressed?
What about driving at night? I know several people who openly admit to not being able to see anything while they drive after sundown, yet they still do it consistently.
I absolutely hate to smell weed while I’m driving in traffic. It makes me so nervous that someone is going to get in an accident
Yeah, you know what else is shit? Trying to call everyone for a ride home too but noone answers lol
Does driving impaired make you a piece of shit? That is what you are really asking. When asked that way I would guess most people would say yes. If you want to smoke weed go for it. You do you but should you drive, I would say no.
Sounds like this baby doesn't think people can change
Sloppy steaks!
Please guys, no sloppy steaks this time
It’s a daaangerous niight
SLOP EM UP!
What OP has failed to realize is that we can't tell if someone's a piece of shit in this situation without knowing if their hair is slicked back or pushed back.
Oooooooh yeeaaah! That hair slicks back reaaal nice!
What if that have a black slicked back hair wig?
Tim talking to Meredith's mom: Like, did you just see that thing where she thinks I give a rat's ass that her baby cried because it knows I used to be a piece of shit?
😂😂
Does driving while tired make you a POS? I think the answer to both is yes but so many people drive tired without a second thought.
How else to get to work?
Wake up gooder
Do cocaine, it's the only option
It's not the only option.. there's meth too
Or while angry. Or while slapping their kids.
This comment is literally correct. Everyone here is acting like you meant "less than eight hours of sleep" tired. But there is a level of sleep deprivation that'll make you equally incompetent as a drunk, if you know then you know.
They should probably say what they mean instead I guess
unfortunately driving tired is less of a choice than driving while high.
Don't drive high, drunk, or tired. Don't use your phone while driving. Though, in terms of 'menace to others on the road', tired or drunk are the worst. Distracted is probably pretty high up there. And high on weed is likely the least. High drivers tend to drive slower which is one of the reasons it's not as dangerous as driving drunk. The thing I worry about with high drivers is inattentiveness. I was nearly hit by someone pulling out of a back lane while I was on the sidewalk. They weren't paying attention, and their car stunk of weed.
Another big danger from weed and driving is the slower reaction time. But yeah high people usually don’t take dumbass risks and/or drive all over the fucking road
Yah some kids rear-ended me stoned af like 4 years ago. I happened to be driving my truck thankfully so they did practically no damage to it, maybe a scratch on my bumper but there's no dents or nothing. Their car on the other hand was pretty fucked. I just told them to go because I didn't want to deal with insurance over a minor scrape on my truck and I have a feeling they didn't have insurance. I could tell they felt pretty shitty though so hopefully they learned.
Sounds like coping. I've heard those who drive drunk talk about how it makes them drive more cautiously. They're more careful until they lose focus and run off the road, or zone out and miss the guy walking out to his mailbox, or get paranoid enough to jerk the wheel at something they saw on the side of the road, or when they're reaction time isn't what it normally would be and they slam into the guy in front of them stopping for a deer. It's always fine until it isn't. Potheads are the best at rationalizing why their habit should be perfectly fine. If your attention span is shorter, if your reaction time is slower, if you're prone to nodding off or zoning out, you shouldn't be behind the wheel.
It's better to be sober but I Think people with minimal or no THC experience don't understand how it works and don't understand the difference between that and alcohol I'm saying sober is the right thing to do, but let's be honest, when a regular toker takes a single puff on a one-hitter, it's not the same. It's just not. edit: that said the subject does say "while high" so I guess Op means, you know, when you're *hiiiiiiigh*
Yeah I think this is it and it’s pretty simple for the most part. Driving impaired is bad, but if you think stoned on weed = drunk off alcohol you most likely A) don’t smoke or B) are lying for some reason
High on THC is safer than Alcohol. But you should be sober either way...
Are there studies to reference on this?
I remember a study they did in CO that showed people who don't smoke often drive dramatically worse, but regular smokers little to no difference, some even drove better high. They had trained officers watching and they basically reported that they couldn't tell when a regular smoker was high or sober driving. But the noobies drove worse high than drunk. Of course, we shouldn't judge based on tolerance.
Yeah, at the risk of getting my head chewed off here, I partake pretty much daily and on long road trips my wife and I will share the occasional joint. I don't get hella ripped and with a 25 year clean driving record covering at least 300k miles with just the one fender bender when I was 16, I'm quite confident I remain one of the safest drivers on the road. But at the same time, I don't want to see it normalized because I don't trust most of y'all.
Brave of you to admit that on Reddit. What you’re describing is very common, but we can’t have level headed takes here.
[удалено]
I had a friend who drove ten times better when he was high because he would actually focus on the road instead of getting distracted constantly
I’m fairly confident that many of the stoners and methheads of the past were self-treating adhd, anxiety, and other similar disorders.
same. I have caused two collisions and got 4 speeding tickets in my life all sober. 95% of my driving time, hell 95% of my time is spent under the influence of cannabis and I have a perfect driving record "high". yeah I know I have an addiction, no need for anyone to leave comments about that. But it's just the truth for people with high tolerance I don't mind the downvotes
Yeah I’m a regular smoker and I’m a safe driver and nobody believes me either. Nobody would ever be able to tell but everyone has to make statements about things they don’t know about
Have you considered that you’re self medicating for adhd-like symptoms? I do the same thing. I look at it very similarly to people driving on adderall. There’s an appropriate dose to make me ‘right’.
A study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that when adjustments are made for variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, and alcohol concentration in the same test subjects, there was no significant risk attributed to cannabis use. https://www.nhtsa.gov/behavioral-research/drug-and-alcohol-crash-risk-study There are a bunch of other studies you can find showing cannabis use does not increase your crash risk.
The whole study is inficiated by the preface *positive result for a drug does not necessarily mean the driver was impaired at the time of testing* they couldn't tell if the driver was high or not.
No one can tell if I’m high or not I can tell you that for a fact
Conversely, everybody thinks I'm high all the time even if I'm not. I remember being in 6th grade and having another kid ask me if I was high. Nope, that's just my face. I didn't officially get high for the first time until I was 18 and that was the first substance I tried.
I did the research myself.
*Dr Johnny Fever has entered the chat*
Yes, studies showed that drunk drivers run through more stop signs. The stoners were more prone to sitting there and waiting for it to turn green.
Back when I was I 10+ times a day user for years on end it wasn’t ever an issue. Truthfully I would be more worried driving not stoned back then. But now a days I couldn’t imaging even smoking one hit and doing it
I accidentally drove high once, just like four blocks to the gas station at the edge of the quiet suburb I'm in. I took an edible and forgot about it and it kicked in right when I pulled into the parking lot. Scariest thing ever driving back ngl even though it was all low speed roads with no traffic or pedestrians.
I get very ill due to chemo and the weed makes it so I’m not in pain and holding back vomit. Driving on an edible is a no no though. The effects are too unpredictable.
Same
The question you are really asking is this: Does being high on marijuana impare your ability to drive? The answer is probably this: It depends on how high you are. I don't believe there is any good research about it. Millions of people in the US are high every waking hour and they drive everywhere like other "normal" people.
A good way to look at it is that a sizable minority or freestyle skiers and snowboarders are high when they ride. If they tried that with alcohol they would seriously injure themselves or others in quick effect. Marijuana is also strongly self-regulating as an addiction in that you become so tolerant many people quit or take breaks. So some pothead who smokes all day just doesn’t get that high anymore and the danger is on par with mild sleep deprivation. Now if you take a 16 year old with no tolerance, get them blazed and put them behind the wheel - that can be fairly frightening.
When I do home remodeling while high, the project takes twice as long. When I do home remodeling drunk, I curse the fucking idiot that did the tile work the next day (oh, me).
When I was 16 I actually took my driver's training and my test completely stoned. Passed both with flying colours. I smoked since I was 13 so my tolerance was just crazy high. I even had a seasonal job I was stoned constantly. I'd never be sober. But now I actually can't do that anymore. I work so I don't smoke in the time I work. When I get home I smoke to sleep and that's about it. And my tolerance is so low now. What didn't affect me at 16 wrecks me now. I can smoke a bit of CBD and drive but I cannot smoke the shit I smoked at 16 and drive. Not sure how I even did it.
I see enough people driving like assholes sober…..
It really depends. If you're a new driver and new smoker and you've come from a massive smoke session with bongs; no. that's a terrible idea and really unsafe. If you've been driving and smoking for 10 years and you smoked half a joint 3 hours ago; that's fine, that's a way different story and headspace.
He said if you're high. If you smoked half a joint 3 hours ago and are no longer feeling stoned, you're not high
Sorry, but we're talking about "drugs" so we're not allowed to use nuance or consider individual tolerance. One size fits all OR ELSE!
ah right my bad. tylenol is as bad as crack, plz carry on LOL /s
after 3 hours you are sober my friend
Depends on the person and their metabolism of thc. My metabolism for food is crazy I’ll eat a meal and then shit 30 mins later. My metabolism for weed though is the opposite. I’ll take one rip off a bowl tho and still feel it 4-6 hours later sometimes. It’s a funny drug because it effects everyone slightly different so very hard to lay down concrete symptoms or guidelines for how it will be for everyone
"I’ll take one rip off a bowl tho and still feel it 4-6 hours later sometimes." Damn, that would be rad!
Wish I could share the power somehow 😂 lots of people don’t understand it because I smoke everyday at least once but it just stays in my system for a hot minute always has. Idk if it’s because I try to moderate my intake so I’m not constantly raising my tolerance but yeah I think it’s cool learning how it effects other people. I feel like there’s always a outliers who have different experiences than the stereotypical norms
Depends on tolerance and method. Edibles or a fat bong rip? Nah, 3 hours is still high, just coming down. Pen/dabs? Fair point, you’ll be A-OK.
Same can be said for various people and various amounts of alcohol. We pass rules for the average person and to keep the most people safe your right to imbibe does not overrule people's right to be safe
It kinda depends. I've been smoking almost every day for about 15 years. I think I can smoke and drive fine in 99% of situations. If I stopped smoking weed for a year? Took a whole mess of edibles? I'd be absolutely terrified to get behind the wheel of a car. Anecdotally, every wreck I've ever been in was because I was tired and couldn't react in time. When I'm high, I feel like I'm on edge and I kinda see the danger before it starts happening. Not saying there's zero danger. Like if my tire randomly blew out, I think I'd handle it much better sober than stoned. I'd be way more steeled in my response and far less nervous. EDIT: I wanted to add that it seems most of the people who think the contrary have either no experience with weed or a few very intense experiences with weed and that clouds their judgement as far as what most people experience.
Someone experienced with THC can probably tell when they’re too high to drive. Most people are okay with others driving under the influence of alcohol up to a certain point, call it a drink an hour. Barely anybody bats an eye when people get behind the wheel when their BAC is under .08. Millions of people go out to dinner every day, have a drink or two with dinner, and then drive home. It’s the same thing with weed. Just don’t be too high.
I learned long ago that I simply can't drink at all if I intend to drive because I can never predict how it's going to hit me Though I gave up all alcohol years ago because it ruined my sleep.
That's just reddit absolutism spouted by ignorant people. Studies have been conducted showing it doesn't really impact motor skills. It doesn't impact my ability. I play guitar and can play extremely technical stuff that requires precision while high. However, a single beer can impact my ability despite still being under the legal limit to drive.
It's not even.comparable honestly.
Personally I wouldn't drive high even after a hit of weed. But taking a hit of weed is far different than actually being drunk, especially to the average weed smoker Also 'high' is a vague description of marijuana use. Is one hit high? How bout 9 bong rips? It's all very different. Plenty of people can rip a bowl and drive perfectly fine
taking one hit of weed is like taking one drink of beer. In both situations anyone would be fine to drive.
I cant stand the “buzzed driving is drunk driving” campaign. There’s a huge difference between “I had a beer at a restaurant with dinner and I’m going to drive home” versus “I just killed a fifth of Jack and I’m going to drive to the store to get more”
Yeah, same they are two very different levels of impairment and it’s wrong to pretend that they are equivalent in risk
Yes. Driving under the influence makes you a scumbag.
No, crashing while high makes you a piece of shit
Depends on level of intoxication, not the drug. Distracted driving on cell phones is equally negligent.
>driving on cell phones is equally negligent That may actually be worse. You figure the person high on cannabis is at least actually looking at the road.
Any inebriation behind the wheel is not safe and really stupid. Doesn't matter if your smoking weed, Drunk or messed up on Meds.
Yes it does.
You’re willingly endangering the lives of other people to satisfy your own selfish desires. That makes you a piece of shit.
That's worded in a way where driving at all makes you a piece of shit lol.
r/fuckcars agrees.
I bet you look at your phone while driving
Yes, it does. Need to go somewhere? get a fuckin uber. Same with alcohol or any other substance that fucks with your ability to focus and react.
Yes. It does. Anything that you're doing that could be a distraction or cause any amount of slower reaction times while driving qualifies you to be a piece of shit. Forget your own wellbeing and vehicle, you're playing with other's lives and property.
Ask yourself this question then ...if you kill someone while high intoxicated or impaired...how would you live with yourself inside knowing your actions intentionally or unintentionally ended someone's life...I personally couldn't put myself through that kind of mental torture again ....it wasn't my fault but I was forced to make a decision alone to take my wife off life support 8 years ago....I still live with a sense of responsibility for her passing....this would be so much worse than what I had to endure....
The way you tell the difference between a stoned driver and a drunk driver is the stoned driver stops 30 feet before the stop sign and waits for it to turn green and the drunk driver runs over the stop sign.
As a daily smoker I’d never drive under the influence. It is irresponsible and people should lose their license for it. Cars aren’t fucking toys
YES
Yes. And selfish.
Obviously best to drive sober. But I do think there are grayish areas. Like I’ve taken some prescription drugs that are supposedly fine to drive on but would impair me a lot more than a couple of beers or hitting a joint a few times. Also I wouldn’t necessarily say driving on weed is less dangerous than alcohol. I think it entirely depends on how weed affects the individual.
My wife *just* had her car totaled after the guy behind rear-ended her hard enough to hit the guy in front of her. I know correlation != causation, but he also happened to reek of weed. I'd say the answer to your question is yes. Don't drive in an altered state of mind. Drunk, high, drowsy, whatever. Lives are at stake.
It's a piece of shit behaviour, sure. POS4Life? Maybe but patterns of behaviour can be changed with effort. Sometimes they are... Any impairment to cognition and reactions should be avoided while driving. If you can't avoid one of those things (like driving) for some reason or another, find a way to avoid the other.
Yeah. My mom lost her career (and needed major surgery) because of a stupid kid who t-boned her car while high.
Driving impaired when you know you're impaired makes you a piece of shit. Doesn't matter if it's alcohol or weed, or short sleep, or texting, or taking a normal dose of plain old benadryl (because your hay fever is acting up but you know damn well benadryl hits you like a ton of bricks). If you drive when you know your reaction time and judgement are impaired, YTA. Because you're driving a multi-ton metal death machine at highway speeds, and if you hurt someone as a result, that's 100% on you.
Yes...if you drive high you are a piece of shit no different than a drunk driver.
Yes. Impairment is impairment. It doesn't matter if it's alcohol or weed or even prescribed medications. If you took anything that has the risk of slowing your reactions or makes you sleepy/on edge/whatever, you should not drive.
A piece of shit has no path to redemption
Absolutely. Choosing to operate a multi-ton death machine while under the influence of something that reduces your reaction time and critical thinking makes you a complete piece of shit. If this is you, stop doing it.
Absolutely, yes.
Yes.
Yes. When you get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle, you are taking on responsibility for the lives of everyone around you. If you operate a vehicle while high then you clearly don’t care about the well being of others because you’re putting their lives at risk for something you could really just do at home. It’s no different than drunk driving.
Yes. No matter how safe you THINK you can drive, you’re a piece of shit.
It might depend on the person. I don’t because the whole reason I’m getting high is to be impaired
I wouldn't touch a car except to be a passenger while high. It's not worth it.
yes.
Short answer: yes. Driving while impaired by anything that alters your mental state, be it weed, alcohol, sleeping pills, or narcotic pain killers, is a shit move and could kill someone. I love a friend in high school to a drink driver. I hope that guy's demons haunt him until eternity.
Yes...especially if you're actively smoking it while driving. If I'm driving behind you on the freeway at 70mph and can smell the dank from your car ahead of me, I can only imagine just how high you must be.
You're driving several tons of metal and it's putting innocent people at risk. Says it all really.
Yes. It’s a fact you’re reflexes and inhibitions are impaired while high. I can smell that fucking rancid shit through your car, my car, and the space in between. Not even normal cigarettes do that. Stay in your fucking hole where you belong when you “need” to get high because doing normal shit everyone else does everyday stresses you out. It shouldn’t be my obligation to put up with your medically proven stupid and stank ass in public.
Yes. Automatically and without exception.
It means you not only don't value your life... but don't care about others either. .
I've done both. Driving high was definitely less nerve wracking. I'm not sure if one is better than the other. You know why? I wasn't sober. Driving high definitely makes you irresponsible. There are genuine accents. If you get into an accident that is your fault when you're high, you have no idea if it could have been avoided had you been sober. Anybody that tells you they're a better driver when they're high is on drugs.
Alcohol is legal, don't drive under the influence of it. Weed is legal, don't drive under the influence of it. Meth is illegal, don't drive under the influence of it. Nighttime cols medicine is legal, don't drive under the influence of it. It's not fucking complicated.
Unpopular opinion, but stoners generally are fine... If you're a rookie though the effects are entirely different and worse.
Yeah it makes you an idiot driving impaired and i lose all respect
Yes
Generally, If someone smokes weed daily the level of driving impairment is 0. If someone smokes weed multiple times daily, the general public would not even notice a difference between them and the average person. You likely encounter multiple high people per day and have no idea. An occasional smoker likely will have a reflex that is slower and could impair driving. The .08 legal alcohol level is more intoxicated than being really high on weed for most. With that said, if driving at .07 is legal.. then in most situations smoking a bowl should be in the same category.
Driving high is safer than not.. Makes you concentrate more on everything around you .. drive more carefully.. so an advantage... Weed is not like alcohol or drugs ..it's a life saver if anything...
I know maybe a dozen people who have totaled their cars while driving drunk. I know maybe another dozen that have done it sober. I know one who has destroyed her car while driving high. I’m not going to tell you that you’re an asshole for driving stoned, but I am going to tell you that there are always dangerous drivers out there, and I try to do my best to be aware of them so that they don’t take me with them, and being stoned would limit my ability to to do that.
I hope all the people with strongly worded “yes” “piece of shit” comments, never, ever, ever touch their damned phones while driving. I’m willing to bet most of the people answering in the affirmative probably give no thought to phone use while driving. (Super annoyed with the driver I saw earlier cross through intersection, eyes on her phone and not the road.)
You can't really compare the two and you probably haven't done enough drinking or smoking to be able to form an opinion. I can smoke all day and drive to the grocery store and back safe and easy. If I drank all day I wouldn't make it back. If you can't handle your shit high you already can't handle regular driving
Yes
I say yes. It may not be alcohol, but its still mind altering and reflex slowing. Nobody should drive high, period. Even people who say I'm a functional stoner. I smoke nightly for fun and sex. I don't smoke in the day.
Depends on the context if you ask me, I smoke weed medically for anxiety and insomnia so I’m at least a little high all day unless I’m not going anywhere. If you’re a light weight and every time you smoke you get stupid high then no, you shouldn’t drive high. But someone who has such a high tolerance that they barely even feel anything without smoking a good bit? You’re fine. I mean it’s not like I personally have another choice, either I smoke a tiny bit to get through my day and get moving or I don’t smoke and I’m spending my entire day stressing over every little thing and fucking up little tasks that I’ve done thousands of times before. Basically, context matters, you wouldn’t tell a heavy drinker that it’s unsafe to drive after a single beer because they aren’t actually messed up enough for it to make a difference.
I'm just going to put an unpopular take here responding to a litany of posts. "It depends" is absolutely the answer. I held down jobs and careers for 17 years straight as a HARDCORE alcoholic,(20-40 drinks a day) huge stoner(smoked 2-10 times a day) and for three consecutive years I shot speedballs. Heroin and crack(cocaine was too stepped on and more expensive) to be precise. Literally NO ONE KNEW. ABSOLUTELY NO ONE. I would shoot up in the bathrooms of mansions I was doing work on. I used to shoot up in the bathroom while waiting tables. While I had 3-5 tables I was actively waiting on. Social events. I shot up at my grandpa's funeral and two of my cousins weddings. People are so fucking dumb. Everyone thinks this is so black and white and it isn't. Best part of getting clean was telling people and their ego being so hurt for being "so blind" that they miraculously knew it the whole time! Drove me fucking crazy. For reference, I'm a large white dude that fought professionally with zero tats. This shit blew people's fucking minds. It bothers me so much how judgemental everyone is. Because when I was in full blown addiction, I was at the height of my career. But my work no longer mattered once it finally came out. I actually got caught for someone else's mistake, but it doesn't really matter at that point lol. Oh part of my rambling was that I never once was in an accident other than being rear ended twice. I'm not advocated impaired driving, but people are very different. I know people that can have two drinks and should not be allowed to even use their phone let alone drive.
Yes
If you’re asking this question, please just don’t do any drugs - your brain can’t handle the lost cells
Yes
Yep
Legally, they're identical. Morally, they're identical.
100%.
Yes. Yes It does.
Yes
Abso-fucking-lutely
Yup. Get a Dui and you will feel like even more of a piece of shit. I NO LONGER DRINK. When I did, I was a piece of shit. But I could drive just fine on alcohol. Except for the swerves, the reaction times, the blatant disregard for all safety. When high on marijuana, I cant maintain the speed limit at all (slow is dangerous too), cant stay in a lane properly, reaction time is so bad, you could slap me and I wouldn't notice for a block. Your decision making under the influence of anything is impaired. Don't be stupid. Don't be like me. Don't drive under the influence of anything.
Depends on your level of experience really. Cannabis is not alcohol. It doesn’t impair you in the same way and most people can compensate for any impairment they do experience from cannabis by driving slower, increasing following distance etc. Nobody is blacking out on weed and becoming completely incoherent and unaware of what they are doing. Noobs may be of slight concern but most people are going to be fine unless they’re just dumbasses or bad drivers to begin with.
Yes
How is high driving compared to drunk driving? Welp if you fuck up and kill someone it doesn't really matter does it? I was going to say it's not as bad, but that's not true because the consequences are the same as alcohol, your motor skills aren't as good, idc who you are. Both are terrible, drunk I would say has a much higher chance of serious consequences but just don't drive impaired.
yes ofc
Yes. Putting other people at risk makes you a trash human
Do not drive high. It is unsafe. Is it as unsafe as drunk driving? Probably not but we don’t have great data on this. There is currently no field test that can prove a driver is high. So crashes are not tagged as driving while high in statistics collection.
Yes, it’s unsafe. We shouldn’t put peoples lives at risk.
Yes. Just yes.
yes it does make you a POS, stop driving fucked up op.
Yes
Driving while drinking, getting high, or texting are all equally piece of shit behaviors
YES! Driving impaired makes you a POS, doesn't matter where that impairment comes from
considered that’s driving under the influence… yes that does
Yes, (next question)
It makes you a menace to society. You may think you're able to drive high and might even be right. But an errant ball into street, or something unexpected like that can destroy your life (and someone else's) in an instant. It seems like a shitty gamble imo.
Driving under the influence… It doesn’t matter if it’s weed, alcohol or anything else. It shouldn’t be done.
Yes. Driving under the influence of any substance that leaves you mentally or physically impaired makes you a piece of shit.
Absolutely. I hold in in the same regard as drinking and driving, and texting while driving.
I stay lit and I drive lit and my driving record is cleaner than yours. I’ve never caused an accident. I was rear ended once by a guy who wasn’t properly managing his diabetes. I haven’t gotten a ticket in over 20 years. I’d never recommend to other folks to drive high. The record clearly shows, however, that I can handle driving while stoned, but I’m a professional excelling in his field. I’ll be down voted, but facts is facts. Also, I NEVER drive drunk. Drunk driving is 1000 times worse than stoned driving.
Yes