XPost: alt.politics.marijuana, alt.politics.republicans, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   From: leroysoetoro@americans-first.com   
      
   https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2025/10/07/how-high-weed-tied-to-40-   
   percent-of-fatal-car-crashes-n4944564   
      
   It’s been six years since legal weed went on sale in Ohio — and now it   
   seems nearly half the stoners in fatal crashes forgot to just stay home   
   and eat their Cheetos. A new Wright State University study showed that   
   more than four out of 10 deadly car crashes included a driver with high   
   levels of THC in their bloodstream.   
      
   The study, just published in the Journal of the American College of   
   Surgeons, reviewed data for 246 deceased Ohio drivers, and found an   
   average THC blood level of 30.7 ng/ML — 15 times the state's legal limit —   
   in 41.9% of dead drivers. Ohio is a fairly typical state in most regards,   
   so I'd take that 42% as a good-enough approximation of trends in states   
   with legal weed.   
      
   Almost a dozen years have passed since legal weed first went on sale in   
   Colorado and Oregon, so the numbers, high as they are (heh), don't   
   surprise me. But the report is also frustrating in the context that it   
   lacks. What percentage of fatal crashes involved weed before 24 states   
   legalized recreational sales?   
      
   The closest we get to that side of the issue is this item from the ACS   
   writeup: "The rate of drivers who tested positive for THC did not change   
   significantly before or after legalization (42.1% vs. 45.2%), indicating   
   that legal status did not influence the behavior of those who chose to   
   drive after use."   
      
   The study only reaches back six years — by which time medical marijuana,   
   often a fig leaf for recreational use, had already been legal for four   
   years. Prior to medical (and then recreational marijuana) becoming more   
   widely available, there wasn't nearly as much testing — making the data   
   frustratingly incomplete.   
      
   The best I could come up with was setting Grok loose on the problem. Even   
   Grok sounded a bit frustrated with the lack of data, but what it could   
   find for THC-impaired dead drivers varied wildly from 1.1% in a single   
   1994 study, all the way up to 9% in 2000.   
      
   But both are a far cry from the 42% found much more recently in Ohio.   
      
   Is availability to blame? Potency? Both?   
      
   It's been said many times before, but this is not your father's weed.   
      
   For personal reasons I won't bore you with, 36 years ago, 19-year-old me   
   moved to Eureka, Calif. — deep in Humboldt County. Or as we used to call   
   it, "Behind the Redwood Curtain." My running joke was that there were   
   three kinds of people in Humboldt: the hippies, the loggers, and me (and   
   my weird friends).   
      
   Humboldt was famous among pot connoisseurs for the notoriously strong   
   Humboldt Homegrown, mostly out of farms around Garberville. Hikers and   
   campers were advised on how to safely back away if they happened to   
   stumble upon a pot-growing field nestled in the redwoods.   
      
   Testing wasn't as frequent back then, but even the prized Homegrown rarely   
   ran above a concentration of 15% THC. The stuff Humboldt State University   
   hippie-wannabes could usually find was probably around 10-12%, and they   
   bragged about it to their friends back home.   
      
   And Another Thing: HSU (now Cal Poly Humboldt) back then had a surprising   
   number of kids from nice families in Los Angeles. Their parents sent them   
   north to get them away from the L.A. drug scene. Out of the cocaine frying   
   pan, into the weed and shrooms fire. SMH.   
      
   The point of sharing my somewhat ridiculous backstory is that the super-   
   powerful weed that you had to go to Humboldt — or a bit later, to British   
   Columbia — to buy just semi-reliably on the black market would barely pass   
   muster with ordinary, everyday pot smokers shopping at a legal dispensary   
   today.   
      
   Here in Colorado, the average THC concentration of the legal stuff is   
   approximately 21%, based on comprehensive lab testing of weed statewide.   
   That's just the average concentration.   
      
   Frogurt — a name-brand grown and sold in Michigan — tests at 41%.   
   Something called Future #1 is up to 37% THC, and the Permanent Marker   
   brand runs at an average of 34%.   
      
   Back in the day, the hard-to-find 15% stuff was the much-sought-after   
   "one-hit weed." The average pot today is 50% stronger. But for people   
   willing to pay a little more, they can get stuff four times more powerful   
   than much of anything your typical 1990 dorm-room smoker enjoyed behind   
   the Redwood Curtain.   
      
   The industrial-scale pot-growing enabled by legalization made the stronger   
   concentrations possible, probably even inevitable. Easy availability   
   changes the equation, too. Around 2000, 5% or so of adults reported   
   "regular" pot use of at least once a month. In 2024, that number was 15%.   
      
   But cultural conditions have changed greatly since 2000. People were   
   likely less willing back then to answer positively. So we just don't know   
   what the true figures are, but if the trendline is up for regular pot   
   smoking, then the trendline for potency is way up.   
      
   About the only thing we can conclude with any certainty is that you'd have   
   to be stoned out of your gourd to think it's a good idea to drive while   
   impaired.   
      
      
   --   
   November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look   
   forward to America being great again.   
      
   We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that   
   stupid people won't be offended.   
      
   Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.   
      
   Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama   
   / Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.   
      
   Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the   
   The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood   
   queer liberal democrat donors.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)