ACUTE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF MARIHUANA IN MAN, INCLUDING ACUTE COGNITIVE PSYCHOMOTOR AND PERCEPTUAL EFFECTS ON DRIVING

There is a general consensus that marihuana does detract from or impair driving; even though marihuana does impair driving, many reports lack (experimental) evidence; and there is increasing evidence that marihuana, used alone or in combination with other drugs (particularly alcohol), is directly implicated in traffic accidents and fatalities. Propective paradigms include; psychomotor tasks that are presumed or known to be related to driving skills, driving simulators, traffic-free courses, and road tests. The following conclusions can be made: psychomotor studies can only examine specific subsets of the complexity of behavioral demands for driving. While many such studies report dose-related findings, there is a real question about generalizing to driving per se; driving simulators have the advantage of enabling control of variables, but are nevertheless experimental artifacts. The studies to date have operationally defined variables such as speed errors, acceletator errors, brake errors, risk-taking in terms of passing, passing-time judgements, and visual signal detection. Whereas dose-related effects have been reported, here again there is a question about generalizing to driving per se; there is a desperate need for replication of studies showing dose-related effects; the dose-related effects reported derive from the one and only study that has been completed to date. Investigators should turn their attention to: driving studies on city streets, in urban areas: replication of relevant published studies; including alcohol in the experimental paradigm; and including night as well as day driving as a variable. (Author/TRRL)

• Corporate Authors:

  Addiction Research Foundation

  33 Russel Street
  Toronto, ONo,   Canada 
• Authors:
  • Klonoff, H
• Publication Date: 1983

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 433-473
• Serial:
  • Cannabis and Health Hazards
  • Publisher: Addiction Research Foundation

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Driver performance; Drivers; Driving; Drugs; Fatalities; Marijuana; Motor skills; Perception; Personnel performance; Psychological aspects; Traffic crashes
• Uncontrolled Terms: Psychomotor performance
• ITRD Terms: 1772: Driver; 1855: Driving (veh); 2242: Drugs; 2229: Perception; 2205: Skill (road user)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00395589
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 31 1986 12:00AM