This article was originally published on 25 Feb 2019 and was update on 26 June 2020.
The unavoidable impending legalisation of Cannabis means that lots of regulations need to be adapted – including driving while stoned. In general it’s not considered a good idea to drive under the influence of anything. But before we discourage stoned driving, we decided to take a test for ourselves. Read Myrtle’s account below of the Fields of Green for ALL team’s experience with stoned driving.
Here at Fields of Green for ALL we have been making short movies since the beginning. Our first was Dagga: The Truth, filmed in our lounge with our volunteer crew. That was 6 years ago and since then there has been Dagga: The Cost (2014), Dagga: Police in Helicopters (2015) and other shorts along the way. You can binge watch The Dagga Couple YouTube Channel for a story of our campaign – everything from the awesome speakers at our Clinical Cannabis Convention to the live stream of The Trial of the Plant in 2017.
And now we bring you Dagga: Stoned Driving!
Driving while intoxicated is a very serious issue and the regulations around this are complicated and something that lawmakers around the Cannabis world are grappling with. But how intoxicated are you if you had a toke a few minutes ago, a few hours or even days ago? We all know that the presence of THC in your system does not indicate intoxication but we have yet to come across a credible cognitive test that measures ACTUAL Cannabis intoxication.
We are dealing with the serious side of this issue in our Proposals for the Legal Regulation of Cannabis in South Africa and there is lots of work to do for our government to get this right. Will this be an excuse for the police to harass our SA Cannabis Community in the future or will some scientists, either here or somewhere in the world, come up with a solution?
With the help of our trusty crew and on the invitation of Business Day Motoring Magazine, Gerotek Test Facilities & Volkswagen SA, we kept things light-hearted as we were put through our paces on a slippery obstacle course and much fun was had by everyone!
The most endearing part of the day was knowing that each member of the crew was noticeably more cautious after their blazing session and each one of them drove slower when stoned.
Most of the drivers would never drive that stoned anyway as Cannabis can put you on your guard and make you super aware of your surroundings.
Our roads are crazy places and it is not a good idea to take the edge off of your reaction time. But flip that coin and we all know that road rage seldom happens to stoners. This issue will continue to be a contentious one as long as there are people in the world who use Cannabis and have a license to drive a vehicle. We hope that science catches up soon and we can be more certain of not becoming a target for the police once again.
Dagga certainly affects short term memory and this could pose a problem when driving. More importantly dagga use while driving may cause one to lose concentration on your actual driving as you may get lost in your thoughts and although you may see a stop street for instance you may not react to it. This was my experience more than once anyway so I believe using cannabis immediately before or whilst driving is a definite no-no !.
For sure Deon. That is why we need regulations. Certainly not an excuse for keeping it illegal. You might have noted Buzz saying that he would “never drive that high”. Most people who use Cannabis are super aware if they are impaired.