How Long Should You Wait Before Driving After Smoking Pot?

If you have used marijuana, what's the amount of time you should wait before getting behind the wheel of a car?

Cannabis has been all over the news lately.

Should it be legal? To what extent?

One of the big questions to go along with the legalization of weed is how much does it affect the user? Especially, when it comes to things like driving.

According to miamiherald.com,

"Smoking marijuana can impair a driver’s ability for up to five hours, a study from McGill University in Canada found."

Here's a "twist" in that study.

"Drivers who smoked cannabis were able to complete simple tasks like braking and maintaining a steady speed on the road."

Of course, there is a "but."

"But when it came to more complex driving maneuvers, those high on weed were significantly more at risk for a crash."

Five hours does seem like a long time.

“Recreational cannabis users” were asked to complete different driving tasks before smoking marijuana and then did the tests one hour after smoking, then three hours after and finally five hours after that last puff from a joint. The tests proved smoking marijuana makes a driver less capable to cope with certain situations on the road."

There's another "twist."

"It confirms the theory that marijuana can make a driver more cautious, if only for a short amount of time. Performance was almost always significantly better without cannabis. The only exception was for vigilance at 1 hour after cannabis use. Vigilance was higher at that time point than for the non-cannabis state."

How does it compare?

"While it’s much safer to drive while sober, drivers high on marijuana are less likely to take risks. They’ll drive slower, follow cars at greater distances, take some actions that at least somewhat offset the fact that they’re impaired.”

My suggestion is if you're going to be partaking, then avoid driving. It's better to be safe than sorry.