{"id":61295,"date":"2025-10-18T13:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T17:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=61295"},"modified":"2025-10-18T13:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T17:09:09","slug":"does-this-surprise-anyone-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=61295","title":{"rendered":"Does This Surprise Anyone?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, The American College of Surgeons released\u00a0a report highlighting the dangers of driving while under the influence of marijuana. The report is based on a six-year study of a\u00a0major Ohio county. It is interesting that the study showed\u00a0no change in THC positivity after legalization. The report is cited in an article posted at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facs.org\/media-center\/press-releases\/2025\/over-40-of-deceased-drivers-in-motor-vehicle-crashes-test-positive-for-thc-study-shows\/?sm_guid=ODk4MjY0fDc4MDIyNzgwfC0xfHJpZ2h0d2luZ2dyYW5ueUBsaXZlLmNvbXw4MjMxNTY1fHwwfDB8MjgyMDU2MzE4fDEwODZ8MHwwfHw4OTQ2ODh8MA2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">facs.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Key Takeaways of the report are listed below&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>In a review of 246 deceased drivers, 41.9% tested positive for active THC in their blood, with an average level of 30.7 ng\/mL \u2014 far exceeding most state impairment limits.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The high rate of THC positivity remained consistent over six years and was unaffected by the state\u2019s legalization of recreational cannabis during the study period.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Messaging around the dangers of smoking cannabis and driving needs to be stronger, authors argue.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The article reports:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>The research will be presented at the American College of Surgeons (ACS) <a title=\"Clinical Congress 2025\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facs.org\/for-medical-professionals\/conferences-and-meetings\/clinical-congress-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Clinical Congress 2025<\/a> in Chicago, October 4\u20137.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>Researchers analyzed coroner records from Montgomery County in Ohio from January 2019 to September 2024, focusing on 246 deceased drivers who were tested for THC following a fatal crash. When autopsies are performed, drug screening is typically part of the process. The study period included the state\u2019s legalization of recreational cannabis in 2023.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>\u201cI was surprised to see that level,\u201d said lead author Akpofure P. Ekeh, MBBS, FACS, a professor of surgery at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. \u201cAn average level of 30.7 ng\/mL generally means those people must have consumed marijuana at some time close to driving. This isn\u2019t about residual use; it\u2019s about recent consumption.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>&#8230;The study notes that blood THC levels are typically drawn by the coroner within hours of death, providing an accurate snapshot of a driver\u2019s state at the time of the crash. Most states that have set legal limits for driving range from 2 to 5 nanograms per milliliter (ng\/mL) \u2014 a threshold the average level in this study (30.7 ng\/mL) far exceeded.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><strong>\u201cThe messaging over the last few years has been just the push towards recreational legalization,\u201d Dr. Ekeh noted. \u201cThe problem is that from a public health standpoint, there has not been enough emphasis on some of the <a title=\"Marijuana and Surgery\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facs.org\/for-patients\/preparing-for-surgery\/marijuana-and-surgery\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">downsides and the dangers<\/a> that can occur. People should treat smoking marijuana just like they treat alcohol: don\u2019t smoke and drive.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It is interesting that the legalization marijuana did not impact the numbers of people driving while under the influence of the drug. This could be considered another reason NOT to legalize recreational marijuana&#8211;legalization does not solve problems&#8211;it simply legalizes a problem that is already there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, The American College of Surgeons released\u00a0a report highlighting the dangers of driving while under the influence of marijuana. The report is based on a six-year study of a\u00a0major Ohio county. It is interesting that the study showed\u00a0no change in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=61295\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[375,8096,18625],"class_list":["post-61295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-driving-under-the-influence","tag-marijuana","tag-the-american-college-of-surgeons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61295"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61313,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61295\/revisions\/61313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}