10:41am Friday 9th May 2008
By Barry Nelson
A DRUG expert from the North-East has warned that widespread cannabis use is putting the safety of every motorist at increased risk.
Professor Heather Ashton, retired professor of psychopharmacology at Newcastle University, said the greatest threat to society as a whole was people driving under the influence of the drug.
Prof Ashton welcomed Wednesday's decision by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to defy the advice of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), and move cannabis use back to a Class B drug from Class C.
But she urged that the issue of driving while high on cannabis needed to be taken far more seriously.
Recently, Durham Police revealed that more than half of fatal accidents in the county involved drivers who had taken drugs.
Studies by the Transport Research Laboratory revealed that six times as many people are killed in road accidents with traces of illegal substances in their bodies compared to a decade ago. While drink driving is now a taboo, Prof Ashton said too many regular cannabis smokers are willing to get into the driver's seat after smoking a joint.
"While we now know that cannabis use can cause mental health problems if you take it when you are young, one thing nobody seems to talk about is the threat posed to society as a whole by people who drive while they are still high,"
said Prof Ashton, an expert on the affects of drugs on the human body.
Cannabis users needed to be aware that driving while under the influence of the drug was very dangerous as well as being illegal, she added.
"In recent weeks, nobody has mentioned the quite devastating effect that smoking a joint has on driving,"
said Prof Ashton.
The drugs expert, who gave evidence to the ACMD when the issue of reclassification last came up four years ago, said cannabis impairs judgement and hand-to-eye co-ordination and interferes with the ability to react to complex situations.
"It is also well documented that using cannabis distorts time. One cannabis user told me that you can see the red light, but you can't judge the time it takes to get there," she said.
Prof Ashton, who wrote a report for the RAF on the dangers of mixing cannabis with sleeping tablets, said: "The message is that cannabis use not only affects individuals, it puts the whole public at risk."
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