Local researcher sheds light on danger of cannabis when driving

While Vermont has legalized retail cannabis use, many people still have concerns over how dangerous the drug is. 

Thousands of Vermonters have made their way to cannabis dispensaries since October 1st, and one local professor thinks there needs to be caution surrounding the drug, especially when it comes to driving. 

“Is weed addictive?” Ari Kirshenbaum asked at Thursday night’s ‘Weed and the Wheel’ presentation. “Does weed impair driving skills? The answer to those questions is unequivocally yes.” 

Ari Kirshenbaum is a professor of psychology at Saint Michaels College, and has immersed himself in research on cannabis, and its neurological effects on humans, since 2020. 

“We can do what we can to prevent excessive use, prevent dependence, but also to provide treatment,” he said. 

With help from a national science foundation grant, Kirshenbaum was able to construct an app that helps build data on cannabis-related impairment. 

The app has had over 1000 users, and has determined that decision making skills deteriorate by 33 percent while on cannabis. 

It also said that cannabis’ effects last up to five hours after use. 

“Regardless of whether they’ve inhaled it or swallowed it or if they’ve eaten it…that pupil might not remain constricted even if that flashlight is still in their eye, the pupil will bounce,” he said. 

According to the health department, THC has been detected in 23 percent of operators involved in fatal crashes since 2017 in the green mountain state. 

There are no blood tests or breathalyzers used by Vermont state police to determine THC content in drivers. 

“It’s because there is no linear relationship between concentration in your bloodstream and impairment,” Kirshenbaum said. 

Kirshenbaum has run drug trainings with the Vermont State Police in past years and says he will likely do the same with cannabis, but that officers have already been seeing the effects. 

“(An officer) said he asked this guy at roadside to do the walk and turn test, you know take ten steps and then turn around…the individual walked into a corn field,” he said. 

Kirshenbaum also said that you are half as likely to get in a cannabis-related crash than in an alcohol-related crash, and thinks more can be done by the state to inform the public. 

“Maybe on the packages there is something that the state can say,” he said. “We’ve been staring at cigarette packages for a long time that tell us not to smoke if we’re pregnant.” 

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