3 ms·

> It's also a drug who's abuse regularly kills people other than those using it. I don't think this is unique to alcohol. Nicotine and driving seems pretty ok

> It's also a drug who's abuse regularly kills people other than those using it. I don't think this is unique to alcohol. Nicotine and driving seems pretty okay, but I can't think of any other deadly drugs out there which wouldn't impair your driving. EDIT: As other users have brought up, nicotine kills plenty of people other than those using it, in the form of second-hand smoke.

quickthrowman 7y ago
Cocaine, methamphetamine don’t impact your ability to drive well, but they may make you drive more impulsively. Opiates, benzos, and alcohol all affect technical driving skills in a negative way. I’m not opening the THC and driving can of worms.
- kerkeslager 7y ago
  > Cocaine, methamphetamine don’t impact your ability to drive well, but they may make you drive more impulsively. I'm very skeptical of this claim. Do you have any evidence? Note that impressions of ones own performance while on drugs are not necessarily accurate.
  - quickthrowman 7y ago
    As it turns out, I was using my own experience as a guide, but this meta study[0] supports my claim. Lab tests imply better driving skills while real word experience shows the opposite. Cocaine and methamphetamine increase impulsivity, and “real users” (addicts) of meth in particular are prone to stay up for extremely long periods of time, long enough where the meth wouldn’t counteract the physical exhaustion, which would account for meth leading to more accidents in real life conditions. I still maintain that cocaine or meth would improve the driving skills and response times for a rested person. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22842792/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22842792/
    - kerkeslager 7y ago
      > I still maintain that cocaine or meth would improve the driving skills and response times for a rested person. Yeah, it does look like the evidence supports that. Interesting stuff. If restedness is the real factor, it becomes pretty difficult to regulate that. There are two problems I can think of: 1. I don't think that someone being on meth or cocaine meets the burden of proof to say they aren't rested. 2. People drive without adequate rest, even without stimulants. If someone is hasn't slept in 48 hours, it seems like it would be better for them to be on stimulants than not.
- ThrustVectoring 7y ago
  >Cocaine, methamphetamine don’t impact your ability to drive well, but they may make you drive more impulsively. Stimulant therapy on adults with ADHD has been shown to improve driving skill. Furthermore, ADHD is found more often in cocaine users than in the general population, likely due to self-medicating tendencies.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
randlet 7y ago
Sure, lots of drugs impair your driving, but alcohol seems to be the one that people drive after using most frequently. This could be just selection bias though given that alcohol is the most widely used hard drug and easiest to measure/detect on the side of the road. It would be interesting to see a "drug" vs "drives after using drug" analysis!
- kerkeslager 7y ago
  Yeah, I agree that would be interesting, but I don't think we can say right now. One problem with collecting this data is that breathalyzers are cheap, easy, well-known, and available. If there's an equivalent for detecting impairment from other drugs, I don't know of it.
opportune 7y ago
There are probably lots of people you drive by on your commute every day who are on prescription ADHD medicine. Maybe some on low doses of (prescribed) opioids as well, or prescription anti-anxiety like klonopin. The dose makes the poison though. There’s a reason low levels of alcohol are allowed while driving too
- ThrustVectoring 7y ago
  Studies have shown that driving skill among adults with ADHD is improved under stimulant therapy.
WhompingWindows 7y ago
It's a very hard to scientifically compare drugs and their effects on driving...alcohol use is VERY widespread, so is driving, therefore alcohol use + driving is very widespread and we know just how terrible that is. Opioids and hallucinogens and THC/CBD probably all negatively effect driving, but it's much harder to compare due to less study, less scale, and less data (federally illegal/obstacles abound to study many of those things). Nicotine is not really a problem with driving, it's like caffeine in that sense...stimulants aren't as dangerous for machinery operation.
throwaway5752 7y ago
Second hand smoke killed millions of people and still kills thousand a year just in the US.
- kerkeslager 7y ago
  Good point, I was only thinking of the "driving while impaired" vector.

quickthrowman 7y ago

Cocaine, methamphetamine don’t impact your ability to drive well, but they may make you drive more impulsively. Opiates, benzos, and alcohol all affect technical driving skills in a negative way. I’m not opening the THC and driving can of worms.

kerkeslager 7y ago
> Cocaine, methamphetamine don’t impact your ability to drive well, but they may make you drive more impulsively. I'm very skeptical of this claim. Do you have any evidence? Note that impressions of ones own performance while on drugs are not necessarily accurate.
- quickthrowman 7y ago
  As it turns out, I was using my own experience as a guide, but this meta study[0] supports my claim. Lab tests imply better driving skills while real word experience shows the opposite. Cocaine and methamphetamine increase impulsivity, and “real users” (addicts) of meth in particular are prone to stay up for extremely long periods of time, long enough where the meth wouldn’t counteract the physical exhaustion, which would account for meth leading to more accidents in real life conditions. I still maintain that cocaine or meth would improve the driving skills and response times for a rested person. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22842792/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22842792/
  - kerkeslager 7y ago
    > I still maintain that cocaine or meth would improve the driving skills and response times for a rested person. Yeah, it does look like the evidence supports that. Interesting stuff. If restedness is the real factor, it becomes pretty difficult to regulate that. There are two problems I can think of: 1. I don't think that someone being on meth or cocaine meets the burden of proof to say they aren't rested. 2. People drive without adequate rest, even without stimulants. If someone is hasn't slept in 48 hours, it seems like it would be better for them to be on stimulants than not.
ThrustVectoring 7y ago
>Cocaine, methamphetamine don’t impact your ability to drive well, but they may make you drive more impulsively. Stimulant therapy on adults with ADHD has been shown to improve driving skill. Furthermore, ADHD is found more often in cocaine users than in the general population, likely due to self-medicating tendencies.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

randlet 7y ago

Sure, lots of drugs impair your driving, but alcohol seems to be the one that people drive after using most frequently. This could be just selection bias though given that alcohol is the most widely used hard drug and easiest to measure/detect on the side of the road. It would be interesting to see a "drug" vs "drives after using drug" analysis!

kerkeslager 7y ago
Yeah, I agree that would be interesting, but I don't think we can say right now. One problem with collecting this data is that breathalyzers are cheap, easy, well-known, and available. If there's an equivalent for detecting impairment from other drugs, I don't know of it.

opportune 7y ago

There are probably lots of people you drive by on your commute every day who are on prescription ADHD medicine. Maybe some on low doses of (prescribed) opioids as well, or prescription anti-anxiety like klonopin. The dose makes the poison though. There’s a reason low levels of alcohol are allowed while driving too

ThrustVectoring 7y ago
Studies have shown that driving skill among adults with ADHD is improved under stimulant therapy.

WhompingWindows 7y ago

It's a very hard to scientifically compare drugs and their effects on driving...alcohol use is VERY widespread, so is driving, therefore alcohol use + driving is very widespread and we know just how terrible that is. Opioids and hallucinogens and THC/CBD probably all negatively effect driving, but it's much harder to compare due to less study, less scale, and less data (federally illegal/obstacles abound to study many of those things). Nicotine is not really a problem with driving, it's like caffeine in that sense...stimulants aren't as dangerous for machinery operation.

throwaway5752 7y ago

Second hand smoke killed millions of people and still kills thousand a year just in the US.

kerkeslager 7y ago
Good point, I was only thinking of the "driving while impaired" vector.