Jan. 26 (UPI) —<\/span> Smoking marijuana impacts adults’ ability to drive safely, yet most who use the drug believe otherwise, a study published Wednesday by JAMA Psychiatry found.<\/p>\n Adults in the study performed “significantly” less well on tests designed to assess their driving abilities, including reaction times 30 minutes and 90 minutes after smoking marijuana, the data showed.\n<\/p>\n<\/article>\n They also had “borderline” declines in driving performance 3 1\/2 hours after using the drug. By 4 1\/2 hours after use, driving performance returned to normal levels, the researchers said.<\/p>\n However, nearly 70% of marijuana smokers expressed willingness to drive within 90 minutes of smoking marijuana, and had confidence in their ability to do so safely, according to the study.\n<\/p>\n “It is important that [marijuana] users be aware that they are not always accurate regarding their self-perception of impairment,” study co-author Thomas D. Marcotte told UPI in an email.<\/p>\n “In addition, experienced users should not assume they’re less impaired simply because they have more familiarity with the product — [they may] still be a risk on the road,” said Marcotte, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California-San Diego.<\/p>\n Research suggests that the number of motorists “driving while high” has increased in the 18 states that have legalized marijuana across the country, particularly among teens.\n<\/p>\n Some studies have found that the drug impairs driving skills for up to four hours following use.<\/p>\n For this study, Marcotte and his colleagues assessed the driving skills of 191 marijuana smokers using a driving simulator test.<\/p>\n Smokers were tested 30 minutes, 90 minutes, three and a half hours and four and a half hours after smoking marijuana containing different levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the ingredient that gives the drug its intoxicating effect.\n<\/p>\n Although “there is significant variability between individuals in the impairing effects of THC, our study suggests that the impairing effects were gone by 4 1\/2 half hours,” Marcotte said.<\/p>\n “This may occur sooner in some, and it may last longer in others, [but] users should be mindful that they may not always be the best judge of whether it’s safe to drive,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Smoking marijuana may impair driving more, and for longer periods, than users think, according to a new study. Photo by Daria Nepriakhina\/Pixabay Jan. 26 (UPI) — Smoking marijuana impacts adults’ ability to drive safely, yet most who use the drug believe otherwise, a study published Wednesday by JAMA Psychiatry found. Adults in the study performed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":766872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[3252,176,3253,3254,597,28,2141],"class_list":["post-766871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-driving","tag-finds","tag-impairs","tag-longer","tag-marijuana","tag-study","tag-users"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n ![\"Marijuana](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Marijuana-impairs-driving-more-and-for-longer-than-users-think-study-finds.jpg\" "\\"Marijuana")
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\n<\/div>\nSmoking marijuana may impair driving more, and for longer periods, than users think, according to a new study. Photo by Daria Nepriakhina\/Pixabay<\/div>\n\n