Pot and Performance

It has long been recognized that drinking and driving do not mix, but many pot smokers believe that marijuana has little effect on their performance behind the wheel. They are dead wrong, according to Harry Klonoff, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Brit ish Columbia in Vancouver, B.C. Writ ing in Science, Klonoff describes how he and his associates tested 64 volunteers to determine how pot puffing affected their driving. The test subjects--all between the ages of 19 and 31--were well educated and were also experienced drivers. They were asked to drive through a complex course that included a slalom through markers, a couple of tunnels, a number of turns and other maneuvers. The subjects were given two chances to drive through the course, and their scores were recorded. Then they were asked to smoke a marijuana cigarette and try again. In almost all cases, the test drivers did not per form as well after pot as they did be fore. They did no better on the road. Before smoking, the volunteers all man aged to negotiate Vancouver's streets without any major problems. After their marijuana cigarette, all of them experienced elevations in their heart rates (partly as a result of the drug and possibly also as a result of stress caused by their own awareness of pot's influence). All also seemed preoccupied or confused, many to the point of being dangerously unaware of pedestrians and traffic around them.

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