looney2nz
Research Geek, Mad Scientist
How could it help "protection against having thc in your blood and being called intoxicated for it"? The point of the test is to detect THC or metabolites.
The baseline for illegal intoxication for driving under the influence of THC has not been established. To cover the middle sigmas of the population (plus a little just to make everyone feel good), a 5 mg/ml is proposed and has been codified in some states.
If the chemical testing excluded the drugs the police suspected, prosecutors usually drop the case. It all would depend on what they thought they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
The crime is driving while intoxicated and not driving with something other than spit or blood in one's body. The problem with THC is finding the baseline you were talking about. With alcohol, there is a fairly direct relationship between increasing dosage and increasing impairment. THC does not seem to follow the same path in general and is more odd when specifically applied to driving.
Damming? No. But, even with alcohol, just because you are under the per se limit on testing does not mean you cannot be convicted of driving under the influence. DUI is a crime. Over the per se limit is also a crime. They are separate crimes.
I think it was 5nl/ml, and as I recall, it was a number pretty much straight out of someone's ass.
We're not <piss> testing for delta-11 THC (which is the metabolite that stays present in the body for 30 days), we're talking a saliva or blood test. I can't wait to see the field test units... understand how THEY work, I know one of them is testing for traces of delta-9 THC in the saliva.
There are SO many variables here... aside from BMI, digestive efficiency/deficiency, type of ingestion (vape, medible, capsules, tinctures), amount of CBD ingested with (or in particular PRIOR to) the THC, and not the least - tolerance.
Wasn't there a recent Auto Club Study that said impairment from cannabis vastly less than alcohol and had a distinctly different character to their impairment. I think they also noted the difficulty in assessing actual impairment based on an arbitrary lab threshold.
That isn't to say that I endorse driving impaired... I'd rather take a hot shower, kick back and relax.
But I took care of LOTS of people doing psychedelics when I was young (never participated), I got real good at snaking folks keys (they hardly ever noticed).
I just think this a vastly different level of issue, and it's a bit too early to be jumping to conclusions... but then again, I also recognize it's a potential revenue stream denied for the time being.