As a disclaimer to this story, we’d like to emphasize that smoking cannabis and driving under its influence is illegal. Still, a recent study by the National Institutes of Health found that drivers under the influence of marijuana showed no real difference in baseline driving or collision avoidance.
The double-blind, placebo-controlled study put 85 subjects (50 men and 35 women) in driving simulators, some having smoked pot and others a placebo cigarette. The study found no difference between the two sexes. In crash avoidance and basic driving, the stoned group also showed no difference in driving performance and performed as well as the group that received the placebo.
With one in six teenagers having driven under the influence of marijuana in the U.S., the study’s summary focused on the test for distraction. The stoned group drove slightly slower when distracted, suggesting they were using “additional compensatory skills,” the study says. Divided attention made the stoned drivers slow down and exhibit increased drowsiness.
The study seems to have found that smoking marijuana exacerbates dangerous driving behavior but doesn’t make for dangerous behavior in and of itself.
