Marijuana and Caffeinated Alcohol Lead to Family Tragedy
Found inside a car which slammed into a father and his three grown sons out for a movie night were crushed cans of a caffeinated alcohol drink and marijuana. The driver admitted using the drugs before driving 80 miles an hour in a 35 miles per hour zone and killing the four men, ages 51, 28, 24 and 19, who were together for a family reunion at the beach.
People have been combining alcohol and caffeinated beverages for years, but these drinks pose a particular hazard because of their easy accessibility and their masking of the signs of alcohol inebriation. Marijuana is well known as a contributing factor to traffic accidents, and its effects lead to poor vehicle control, especially when used along with alcohol. Researchers who have studied the issue are also concerned that adding caffeine to this already lethal combination will worsen drivers' misperceptions about their impairment and increase their risk-taking behavior.
The Centers for Disease Control have already spoken out about the harms of these alcohol/caffeine drinks, but the McConnell family knows the danger firsthand.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/os-four-dead-stpete-four-loko-20100810,0,4306984.story
Comments
Perfect Reason Not to Legalize
I know the proponents of legalization say, well people are already driving high, so that is no reason to keep it illegal. Also another argument I see is, Marijuana makes you more careful, makes you mello, less likely to take risks, it makes you more aware of what you are doing, i.e. paranoid. This accident is case and point as to why it should not be legalized. Marijuana impairs judgement, makes your reaction time slower, and makes you behave in ways you wouldn't normally. If more people can legally get stoned, there will be more of these accidents happening daily. Just like with alcohol. Its a deadly mix.
Keep marijuana illegal, keep our families safe!
Um, the person who caused the
Um, the person who caused the crash was also DRINKING, which as you well know is plenty capable of causing fatal wrecks all by its lonesome.
How about we compromise - take all your wasted drug war money and reallocate it to a War on Impaired Driving (from alcohol, marijuana, prescription pills, or even cell phones). I betcha $3,000,000,000 a year will be more effective in fighting impaired driving that it has ever been in stopping drugs from coming into this country.
People are smoking pot
People are smoking pot regardless of its legality. This story is proof enough of that already. It should be quite obvious to anybody with common sense that the prohibition against drugs is not working and has never worked. To try to enforce a prohibition that has obviously failed has done nothing but ruin more lives. Is this really about making our country safe or is this about punishing those that choose to use intoxicants?
Problem
That would be fine if the only problem with marijuana were driving impairment, but it is not. People aren't going to give up alcohol for marijuana. They will be using both, often at the same time. Using both is more impairing than one or the other, so you can't just blame alcohol.
You are correct. You can't
You are correct. You can't blame alcohol. You can't blame cannabis either. The blame rests on the actions of individuals alone. People will behave irresponsibly with mind altering substances regardless of their legality. Neither substance can be blamed for this. The only thing to blame is the irresponsible people using any substance and getting behind the wheel. These are free-thinking individuals who choose to behave like this. So them and them alone should be held responsible. You can't blame the substance any more than you can blame the car. Not only does that punish individuals who never engage is such irresponsible behavior, it allows those who do recklessly endanger themselves and those around them a way to shift responsibility off of themselves. "It wasn't me. It was the booze and weed." No. It was you that got behind the wheel. It's easy to find a story to demonstrate irresponsibility. There are also hard core drug users who, despite using substances that effect judgment far beyond what alcohol and cannabis are capable of, choose never to get behind the wheel when impaired. Alcohol and cannabis are used, apart and together, in a responsible manner all across this country every day of the year. We should hold people in America responsible for their actions alone.
You say they will be using both substances at the same time. But this story demonstrates it's not a case of what will be. Legalization is always painted with scenarios of what will be. What we are talking about is what is. This is happening now. This is only a fragment of the drug related crime that’s running rampant throughout this country. The nightmare that is described by those opposed to cannabis legalization is already reality under criminalization. At what point do we realize our current policy is not working and it’s time to take a new direction?
CORRECT
this is spot-on.