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Beware of Druggy Drivers

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Beware of Druggy Drivers

Old 12-10-08, 12:17 PM
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Beware of Druggy Drivers

Interesting article for all us cyclists who've ever shouted at a motorist "Are you HIGH?"

https://www.news1130.com/news/local/a...=news&section=

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - As the Christmas party season ramps up, there is good news and bad news in the fight against impaired driving.

The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse has released preliminary numbers for the year in BC.

They show fewer people are driving drunk, but more drivers are testing positive for drugs.

Almost one in five drivers on the road at night are impaired by drugs, alcohol, or both.

The BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation says there's a perception that drugs like marijuana and prescription meds don't affect driver performance, which isn't true.

Last edited by Alox; 12-10-08 at 12:58 PM.
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Old 12-10-08, 01:18 PM
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Testing positive for marijuana does not necessarily mean driving impaired. You can test positive for weeks.
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Old 12-10-08, 02:41 PM
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Originally Posted by zeytoun
Testing positive for marijuana does not necessarily mean driving impaired. You can test positive for weeks.
How many users do you think only smoke ONCE every few weeks.
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Old 12-10-08, 02:45 PM
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Originally Posted by zeytoun
Testing positive for marijuana does not necessarily mean driving impaired. You can test positive for weeks.
I'm thinking that if the criteria is "driving impaired" then that means that drivers 'test positive' in a roadside sobriety test.

It should not matter how long a substance remains in your system, so long as it does not affect your driving ability.

But if a police officer pulls you over and smells dope in your car or on your clothes, he should probably administer a roadside sobriety test - in much the same way as the officer would if he smelled alcohol on the driver's breath. Or if he'd noticed a bottle of NyQuil in the passenger's seat. Or a crack pipe in the ashtray.

Last edited by Alox; 12-10-08 at 02:51 PM.
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Old 12-10-08, 03:04 PM
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Don't know what relevance stats about drivers riding at NIGHT is to cyclists, unless you are a persistent night rider.

In these runups to the holidays watch out for revelers souped up on EGGNOG!


Merry christmas everyone!


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Old 12-10-08, 04:58 PM
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Originally Posted by Alox
Almost one in five drivers on the road at night are impaired by drugs, alcohol, or both.
Have they been setting roadblocks to test motorists at the nighttime? Or is this simply a guesstimate, spit out from a statistical bell curve?

-Kurt
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Old 12-10-08, 07:23 PM
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Originally Posted by CB HI
How many users do you think only smoke ONCE every few weeks.
Quite a few.

I also know quite a few who smoke quite frequently, but would never drive high/impaired.

I'm thinking that if the criteria is "driving impaired" then that means that drivers 'test positive' in a roadside sobriety test.
"Testing positive" is not the words you would use for a field sobriety test.

While I appreciate the cultural shift towards non-acceptance of impaired driving, I really question the "1 in 5" and related figures. If you go to the CCSA website, you'll notice it's hard to find anything more than summary data, and without knowing the internals, it's hard to capture a meaningful picture.

Have they been setting roadblocks to test motorists at the nighttime? Or is this simply a guesstimate, spit out from a statistical bell curve?
The survey is not very transparent, but consisted of about 1,500 night-time drivers. Selection criteria is not shared.
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Old 12-10-08, 08:33 PM
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Originally Posted by Roughstuff
Don't know what relevance stats about drivers riding at NIGHT is to cyclists, unless you are a persistent night rider.

In these runups to the holidays watch out for revelers souped up on EGGNOG!


Merry christmas everyone!


roughstuff
I don't know about where you live, but around me there are a lot of us that ride at night.
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Old 12-12-08, 01:49 AM
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I know a guy who is addicted to oxycontin. He uses everyday and is high all day. Guess what - HE DRIVES EVERY DAY HIGH ON OXY! For those of you who do not know what Oxycontin is - it is a prescription opiate pain killer, extremely powerful opiate. It is essentially a super hit of heroin. These days, it is easy to get as a street drug.

I have seen him fall asleep mid-conversation - eyes roll in the back of his head like a shark, then BAM, he is asleep. He will snap out of it ten seconds later as if nothing happened. The jerk DRIVES when he is high like that!

If he got caught, he wouldn't show up as being drunk even though he is as stoned as someone who drank a full bottle of gin. Law enforcement still doesn't know how to check or test for opiates like oxycontin which are every bit as dangerous or MORE dangerous than alchohol.
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Old 12-12-08, 02:41 AM
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Even with a legally prescribed drug like oxycontin it is illegal to drive or ride a bike for that matter while under it's influence. Law enforcement can arrest and charge you for driving under the influence of such a drug, but can not charge you with possesion as long as you are the person the doctor legally prescribed it to. If not I don't think it is a possesion of an illegal drug but some other kind of charge. Also the person who it was prescribed to can get into trouble as well.

BTW oxycontin is good stuff when managing pain after a surgery. So is hydrocodone. I have had to use them after surgery to manage post surgical pain. But I never drove or rode a bike for that matter when using them and always took the prescribed dose only.
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Old 12-12-08, 08:07 AM
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Originally Posted by Square & Compas
Even with a legally prescribed drug like oxycontin it is illegal to drive or ride a bike for that matter while under it's influence. Law enforcement can arrest and charge you for driving under the influence of such a drug, but can not charge you with possesion as long as you are the person the doctor legally prescribed it to. If not I don't think it is a possesion of an illegal drug but some other kind of charge. Also the person who it was prescribed to can get into trouble as well.

BTW oxycontin is good stuff when managing pain after a surgery. So is hydrocodone. I have had to use them after surgery to manage post surgical pain. But I never drove or rode a bike for that matter when using them and always took the prescribed dose only.
The guy I know who is addicted to oxycontin doesn't have a prescription for it. He buys it on the street. He gets sloppy stoned on the stuff and still drives a car. He has been in several accidents as a result, but never got a DWI because he passed the breath test. He just told the police he was dizzy from the crash!
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Old 12-12-08, 10:40 AM
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Originally Posted by mike
The guy I know who is addicted to oxycontin doesn't have a prescription for it. He buys it on the street. He gets sloppy stoned on the stuff and still drives a car. He has been in several accidents as a result, but never got a DWI because he passed the breath test. He just told the police he was dizzy from the crash!
If you don't do something, you'll be partially responsible if/when he injures someone.
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Old 12-12-08, 11:19 AM
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i don't think he is responsible for the other's actions we all have to answer for our own mistakes no matter how small or in this case large they may be i work with a oxy addict and man does he do allot of it he gets the heroin nod real bad and then works on limb removing machines ant the factory i work at. but next to him everyone else has got a coke addiction (not me or the other mechanic i work with) i have had machines turned on with my hand inside i had one kid lookin' all eight ball turn one on with my friend and fellow mechanic inside it!i say what i can to my boss but as long as the product comes out they don't do very much. i think the general attitude is product not people. sad but i think this is pretty standard in my line of work. but i keep dreaming about a small bike shop and frame building setup with no hard drugs involved. al though i do have to say i see most of the cyclists out at nigh round here are the drunks who lost their license riding from bar to bar drunk as can be barely being able to stand let alone ride.
Thanks,
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Old 12-12-08, 12:39 PM
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Paragraphs? Sentences? Capitalization?

Please?

-Kurt
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Old 12-12-08, 12:52 PM
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Originally Posted by jollygreen
i don't think he is responsible for the other's actions we all have to answer for our own mistakes no matter how small or in this case large they may be i work with a oxy addict and man does he do allot of it he gets the heroin nod real bad and then works on limb removing machines ant the factory i work at. but next to him everyone else has got a coke addiction (not me or the other mechanic i work with) i have had machines turned on with my hand inside i had one kid lookin' all eight ball turn one on with my friend and fellow mechanic inside it!i say what i can to my boss but as long as the product comes out they don't do very much. i think the general attitude is product not people. sad but i think this is pretty standard in my line of work. but i keep dreaming about a small bike shop and frame building setup with no hard drugs involved. al though i do have to say i see most of the cyclists out at nigh round here are the drunks who lost their license riding from bar to bar drunk as can be barely being able to stand let alone ride.
Thanks,
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Dude, you sure you weren't high when you posted this?
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Old 12-12-08, 12:59 PM
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Originally Posted by zeytoun
If you don't do something, you'll be partially responsible if/when he injures someone.
please don't encourage the nannies



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Old 12-12-08, 01:53 PM
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Originally Posted by SweetLou
I don't know about where you live, but around me there are a lot of us that ride at night.
And around here "night" starts at 4:30pm at this time of year!
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Old 12-12-08, 02:14 PM
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Originally Posted by UnsafeAlpine
Dude, you sure you weren't high when you posted this?
Username = "jollygreen", check.
Post reads like Catcher in the Rye, check.
Post talks about a factory with junkies operating "limb removing machinery", check.

I think you have an answer.


please don't encourage the nannies

Oh, I'm one of them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not preachy or hard-nosed about it. If someone has a beer or a puff in the evening, and acts sober and coordinated, I'll mind my own business. If someone's going to be risking only themselves, I'll mind my own business (I'll tell a friend that I care and am worried, of course).

But if I know that someone has a history of accidents due to impairment and is still driving impaired, I'm going to warn him and (if he doesn't listen) call the cops. Heck, when I see someone weaving on the highway, I call the drunk driver hotline.
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Old 12-13-08, 05:45 AM
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Originally Posted by zeytoun
If you don't do something, you'll be partially responsible if/when he injures someone.
Have you ever known an opiate addict (Oxycontin, heroin, vicodin, etc)?

I would be interested in hearing your suggestions as to what I (or anybody else) can do.

Guys like him get sloppy high every day and for much of the day. Based on what I have seen, there is nothing that anybody can do to stop him.

Should I call the police and say, "ya uhm... I know this one guy who does drugs..." That doesn't work. He has been in jail several times. He gets out and goes right back to oxy and heroin. AND he drives a car on the roads that you and I and mothers and babies and fathers and brothers and sisters share.

All drug and alchohol users who drive present a danger to the rest of us. From what I have seen, though, oxycontin and heroin are the grand-daddy of them all. I have never seen any substance have such a grip on the user. This guy started abusing oxycontin maybe four months ago and he is now a full fledged addict - lost his job and now he steals and spends his whole day trying to get drugs. I never saw anything like that with alchohol. Oxy and (now) heroin just took over this guy like the vampire victim in the old spooky movies.

It is sad to see how oxy and heroin destroyed him, but it was his choice. Now, he is a terrible menace to the rest of us. It might not be PC, but guys like that should be locked up for loooong periods of time just to keep the rest of us safe from the crimes they commit to feed their addiction and for the accidents they cause on the roads.

Again, he has been involved in several automobile accidents, but never received a DUI because he passes the breath test. The police just aren't equipped to test for impared drug users even though the users can be stoned out of their minds.

Last edited by mike; 12-13-08 at 05:59 AM.
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Old 12-13-08, 05:15 PM
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Wow I'm surprised that it's only 1 in 5, I'm drunk or high when I'm driving at night way more often than 1 in 5 times. More like 1 of 3.

Seriously though, 1 out of 5? That sounds high. Must be a low threshold including one beer and so on.

Originally Posted by mike
I know a guy who is addicted to oxycontin. He uses everyday and is high all day. Guess what - HE DRIVES EVERY DAY HIGH ON OXY! For those of you who do not know what Oxycontin is - it is a prescription opiate pain killer, extremely powerful opiate. It is essentially a super hit of heroin. These days, it is easy to get as a street drug.
That's kind of surprising. I bet he'd save money by switching over to heroine. Oxycotin is hard as hell to get a prescription for. Some doctors barely prescribe the stuff because being too liberal with it can result in your license to prescribe painkillers being revoked.

Last edited by NorskeDivision; 12-13-08 at 05:23 PM.
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Old 12-14-08, 03:04 AM
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Originally Posted by NorskeDivision
(A person uses oxycontin to get high) That's kind of surprising. I bet he'd save money by switching over to heroine. Oxycotin is hard as hell to get a prescription for. Some doctors barely prescribe the stuff because being too liberal with it can result in your license to prescribe painkillers being revoked.
I don't know where you live, but here, oxycontin abuse and addiction is a HUGE problem. It is a very common street drug. Users do graduate from oxycontin to heroin as you pointed out. According to our local police, oxycontin is a gateway drug to heroin and has made heroin a mainstream drug. In fact as you point out, the oxycontin addict I know also uses heroin.

When I was a kid, heroin was a drug for down-and-out Vietnam vets and inner city derilects. Now, it is on the rampage in our high schools. Who could ever have imagined! So now, we have kids who can barely drive as it is driving while in a stupor on oxycontin and heroin! It's a jungle out there, folks, be careful!
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