Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Passage Of Marijuana Initiative Means New Driving Under The Influence Laws

The recreational use of marijuana was approved in Washington State last night, so how is that going to affect transportation? Well, driving under the influence laws will be changing. Initiative I-502 also established a THC blood limit of five nanograms per milliliter (5 ng/ml) in drivers 21 and over. That level is reduced to 0.00 for drivers under age 21.


Already, not everyone is happy with this. The group Patients Against New Approach Washington says this level is not supported by science and would subject suspected impaired drivers to highly-invasive blood testing, unnecessary confinement and a criminal conviction that will haunt them for life.

They consider the zero tolerance clause for those under 21 even worse though, because a designated driver subjected to second hand marijuana smoke could be held criminally liable for the acitivities of others.
Because I can't find a website for the Patients Against New Approach Washington group stating their concerns, I'm going to link to a site I never thought I would use, Toke of the Town. I believe the article posted there on this topic has factual information and some valid points, but be warned that if you go to this site there is some PG-13 content, to say the least.



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About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.