The pot will cause more accidents on the road

Photo Dominic Scali
Professor Jacques Bergeron (left), who is driving a car people for over 15 years, is in front of the simulator laboratory. Benjamin Lechasseur, undergraduate student in psychology, took part in the simulation.

Dominique Scali

Friday, 16 march, 2018 01:00

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Friday, 16 march, 2018 01:00

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The largest consumers of cannabis tend to take more risks behind the wheel as occasional smokers, according to researchers in montreal who are launching an alarm signal to a few months of the legalization.

Overtake a vehicle in an area of no overtaking or accelerating to pass on a yellow light. This is the kind of behaviour that were studied, researchers in psychology at the University of Montreal.

Most young drivers regularly consume by the pot, the more they admit that they have a tendency to take risks behind the wheel, ” explains the phd student Noémie Cordelier.

Photo courtesy

Noémie Cordelier

Phd student in psychology

We can therefore expect an increase in road accidents, with the legalization of marijuana, which is expected to enter into force next summer, is concerned about his / her supervisor Jacques Bergeron.

Several studies had already shown the dangers of driving under the influence of this drug in the past.

The Journal published in December that the proportion of fatal collisions involving drivers who have used cannabis had more than doubled in the State of Washington in 2014, the year in which this substance had been legalized.

Even fasting

Researchers in montreal have asked 209 young people of 17 to 25 years old to fill out a detailed questionnaire. Some of them are also subjected to a laboratory simulation which recorded their speed, their acceleration, their shots flying and other aspects of their conduct.

The fact to be fasting for 12 hours prior to the experiment was the number of instructions, said Mr. Bergeron.

The preliminary results of the study suggest that personality and impulsivity are related to the risks that young people take to the steering wheel, even when they are fasting.

The team of researchers is unknown, however, if it is eating often of the pot that makes more reckless, or if it is the fact of having a personality reckless, which grows to consume.

Cocktail dangerous

In all cases, consumption and risk-taking create a “cocktail dangerous,” says Ms. Cordelier.

Those who are dependent on cannabis should be the first targeted by awareness-raising campaigns, she said.

“It is late in the prevention. […] For the aspect of driving, it is not ready, ” says Mr. Bergeron.