What is most fun about the recent spate of news articles on marijuana as an impairing substance for driving is this. The impairing impact is so subtle, if it exists, that it is quite difficult to measure and assess, scientifically. The impact is so subtle that just finding it is a challenge. That is of course never in line one of the story, and never in the first paragraph of the underlying "research."

Notice that the recent articles refer to OLD news, recycling old inaccurate horror-stories, or are police-supported efforts. Notice that many are not new research or experiments, but instead are meta-studies or meta-analysis. These take OLD experiments and the reported data and reinterpret the old experiments to form "new" conclusions. That means that the "new" information relies upon the quality of the old underlying experiments and upon the old underlying papers. Then, they rely upon the paradigms overlaid on the old data to provide "new" material. This second stage introduces additional room for bad science, bad logic, and underlying agendas to be put in the public eye. Again, the sexy story controls, and the facts are treated as of no importance unless they add to the sexy story.

Remember that the research is clear that the COMBINATION of pot and alcohol may become substantially impairing, more than would be expected from the amount of either alone, or of both together. Alcohol and pot synergystically impair, so great caution is called for. None of us want to drive impaired, nor do we want to be accused and perhaps convicted based upon bad or terrible science.

The above post was originally published by Lenny on TalkLeft.