I'm an ex truck driver. I'd say I've been driving stoned for 20 years. Not continuously of course. One of my driving jobs was a six day a week 600k round trip where I worked a 17 hour day, with an average four hours sleep a night. I can't remember one of those days where I wasn't stoned and didn't stop halfway out and halfway back to choof up. I have *never* used shakers or speed to keep me going either.
I have *never* had an accident or a near miss that was my fault while driving stoned. I've had to make emergency manoeuvres while stoned and driving to avoid f-wits on the road though. However I did get tunnel vision from some really wikkid weeed a long long time ago. I was driving my Kombi home from a mate's place. I couldn't feel my feet on the pedals, so couldn't stop and could only see a small field of vision for about thirty seconds. That was scary until the vision came back.
In 1983 I nearly killed myself driving drunk (lots of broken and ruptured body parts and a 4 month stay in hospital-2 years on crutches-4 years rehabilitation). I probably drove after drinking five times after that. Once, I got done for DD while driving to the hospital to visit a biker mate who'd been T-boned by a drunk driver. Next, I stoved in a rim on a gutter. The last time I drove drunk (you think I'd have learnt by then), I was on a dirt road and lost it four times in less than a kilometre. I was only doing fifty k an hour, but that was whether I was on a straight or one of the four tight bends on the road... drunk drivers are a fucking danger to themselves and others...I know
In my early days smoking, before I got my license, I drove stoned a few times, but stayed under the speed limit and was extra careful. The worst part about the early days was getting easily distracted by all the other kids in the car with me. Nothin more freaky than someone in the back seat covering your eyes while you're smashed and trying to concentrate on that Oh So Narrow strip of bitument in front of you...even if you are only doing forty kliks.
They've just introduced saliva swabs in my state in Australia. They have a scraper that takes a sample from your tongue and can detect cannabinoids, speed and something else in the one test. You get charged with being under the influence of a drug which means no license, huge fine. The only funny thing about this is the new warning signs posted in offices and hospitals etc.
One has a photo of a cop with a swab next to a car and the text reads:
"If you have been using marijuana, you have the right to remain paranoid."
I lost it in the mental health unit office the first time I saw it. Of course, no-one batted an eyelid. They must have figured I was just some loon coming for his meds.
