Marijuana

[MWB]

My neighbour smokes a lot of marijuana. (Smell it.) Not a problem. But the other day a friend of his came round with a carload of his children aged from 5 to 10-ish. They waited in the car while he & my neighbour chatted & got stoned. Not a huge problem. My problem is he then got in the car & drove off. Who thinks this is bad? Alcohol would be EXTREMELY bad & I would have called the police on him. But marijuana?

[spacechimp]

Yeah, I would have called the police when he got in the car. Even without the children in the car he's endangering others.

[ruby27]

http://www.well.com/user/woa/fspot.htm

That is a fact sheet that claims that marijuana does affect driving. Anyone who has used it and is a driver knows it does impair driving ability. When you are young and selfish (in my case my late teens), all I was worried about was being stopped by the police, now old and sensible I realise it would make me a risk to others on the road and anyone who was a passenger.

Whether you want to respond or not to your neighbour is your business, (perhaps you could print off the fact sheet and highlight the bit about driving and put it through his letter box!), but yes his driving ability was affected - how much is debatable depending on how much was consumed. Lots of regular drinkers of alcohol reckon they can drive after one drink same with cannabis, people reckon they now their limitations. Most cases they are still adversely affected whatever they think.

[styley]

How do you know the driver smokes any dope, where you peeking in his window, as that could be considered a police calling offence.

[perigra]

yup smoking and driving is bad

[saxy_jag]

I'll defend anyone's right to smoke marijuana if they're not forcing anyone else to smoke it and if they're not likely to endanger others.

I would say being under its influence - stoned or otherwise - is likely to endanger others or at least put them at risk. Where children are involved, it's even worse.

[HumaneBeing]

oh it's not that bad. im sure the guy has experience with driving under the influence of weed. i never feel scared when i'm in a car and the driver is stoned. they say not to drive and smoke but you must understand weed isn't that hard to function with when you're a experienced smoker.

[Old_Geezer]

The friend who came around, did they indulge or was it only your neighbour who smoked in his friend's presence ?