How safe is it to smoke pot and drive?

 By Stephanie Barry

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SPRINGFIELD - A Supreme Judicial Court ruling said that an officer who pulls over a driver after detecting marijuana smoke is violating the state constitution, leaving unanswered the question of whether such drivers pose a threat.

A 5-2 vote by the state's high court in September overturned a New Bedford district court decision that allowed police to pull a vehicle over solely because an officer detected marijuana smoke wafting from it.
The seven-justice panel ruled "such stops are unreasonable; therefore, the stop in this case violated" the Massachusetts Constitution, the order states.

The decision homed in on the 2008 initiative petition that changed state law on criminal possession of marijuana. The change decriminalized possession of one ounce or less of marijuana, making it a civil infraction instead of a crime.

While local police departments adjust to the change, the debate over whether or how much marijuana use truly impairs drivers is ongoing.

Springfield Police Department spokesman Sgt. John Delaney said he believes marijuana can have an equitable effect on driving to alcohol.

"I've pulled over many drivers in my career who were high on marijuana exhibiting the same behaviors as a drunk driver. It absolutely impairs driving," Delaney said recently, adding that he and the police force are aware of the SJC decision and intend to abide by it.

"I've seen a lot of changes in the law over my career, and we learn and adapt," he said. "So we will treat suspicion of impaired driving the same: we'll look for crossing marked lanes; running stop signs and the other classic signs of impaired driving."

Drivers suspected of high driving versus drunken driving can be subject to the same sobriety test, but there is no breath test equivalent for testing for levels of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana, Delaney said.

A study released in June by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Office on National Drug Control Policy, and federal safety regulator, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, found pot smoking had an effect on driving skills, but not as much as drinking alcohol.

However, depending how much a driver smoked, his peripheral vision could be reduced and his weaving within a lane increased, according to a CNN report on the study which admitted the issue remains "elusive."

Mixing alcohol and marijuana presented a real danger, with "drivers using both substances weaved within lanes even if their blood THC and alcohol concentrations were below the impairment thresholds for each substance alone," CNN reported.

The tide seems to be turning on marijuana use, with the recreational and medicinal use of marijuana legalized in Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon. Cities in Maine and the District of Columbia have legalized the drug for both purposes although Congress has barred commercial sales.

Twelve states including Massachusetts have sanctioned medical marijuana. New England Treatment Access, the only dispensary in Hampshire County, opened in late September.

Massachusetts voters authorized the dispensaries on a 2012 ballot question, but the 118 Conz St. facility in Northampton was only the third in the state to go online, following ones in Salem, in June, and Brockton, on Sept. 3.

For its part, the SJC ruled: "We have determined that the people's intent in decriminalizing possession of this small quantity of marijuana was to establish that this offense was no longer 'a serious infraction worthy of criminal sanction,' and that those who commit this offense should be treated differently from other drug offenders."