Quelques articles partiellement traduits
Un article du Sunday Times du 13 août 2000
http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/S ... 03043.html Cannabis may make you a safer driver
Jonathon Carr-Brown
Le cannabis peut faire de vous un conducteur plus sur.
TAKING the high road may not be so dangerous after all. Ministers are set
to be embarrassed by government-funded research which shows that driving under the
influence of drugs makes motorists more cautious and has a limited impact on
their risk of crashing.
Prendre la grand'route peut ne pas être si dangereux, après tout. Les ministres sont résolus à être embarassés par l'étude fianancée par le gourvernement, qui montre que conduire sous l'influence de drogues rend les conducteurs plus prudents et a un impact limité sur leurs risques d'accidents
In the study, conducted by the Transport Research Laboratory, grade A cannabis
specially imported from America was given to 15 regular users. The doped- up
drivers were then put through four weeks of tests on driving simulators to
gauge reaction times and awareness.
Dans l'étude, conduite par le Laboratoire de Recherches sur les Transports, un cannabis de catégorie A spécialement importé d'Amérique a été donné à 15 usagers réguliers de cannabis. Les conducteurs défoncés ont ensuite passé 4 semaines de tests sur des simulateurs de conduite pour évaluer leur temps de réaction et leur perception.
Regular smokers were used because previous tests in America using first-
timers resulted in the volunteers falling over and feeling ill. The laboratory found
its guinea pigs through what it described as a "snowballing technique" - one
known user was asked to find another after being promised anonymity and
exemption from prosecution agreed with the Home Office.
Des fumeurs réguliers ont été utilisés parce que dans des précédents tests en Amérique, faisant intervenir des néophytes de la fumette, a eu pour résultat que les volontaires sont tombés par terre
et se sont senti mal. Le laboratoire a trouvé ses cobayes par ce quiq peut se décrire comme "effet boule de neige"- un usager connu a été sollicité pour en trouver un autre après qu'on lui ait promis l'anonymat et l'immunité contre des poursuites en accord avec le Ministère de l'Intérieur Britannique.
Instead of proving that drug-taking while driving increased the risk of
accidents, researchers found that the mellowing effects of cannabis made
drivers more cautious and so less likely to drive dangerously.
Au lieu de prouver que prendre de la drogue en conduisant augmentait le risque d'accidents, les chercheurs trouvèrent que l'effet adoucissant ( maturisant?) du cannabis rendait les conducteurs plus prudents et donc moins susceptibles de de conduire dangereusement.
Although the cannabis affected reaction time in regular users, its effects
appear to be substantially less dangerous than fatigue or drinking. Research by the Australian Drugs Foundation found that cannabis was the only drug tested that decreased the relative risk of having an accident.
Bien que le cannabis affecte le temps de réaction chez les usagers réguliers, ses effets apparaissent être substantiellement moins dangereux que la fatigue ou l'alcool. La recherche menée par la Fondation Australienne des Drogues a trouvée que le cannabis étais la seule drogue qui diminue le risque relatif d'avoir un accident.
The findings will embarrass ministers at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) who commissioned the study after pressure from motoring organisations and anti-drug campaigners. Lord Whitty, the transport minister, will receive the report later this month.
Ces trouvailles vont embarasser les ministres aux services de l'équipement, des transports, et des régions qui ont diligenté cette étude après la pression d'organisations de conducteurs et de militants anti drogue. Lord Whitty, le ministre des transports, va recevoir le rapport plus tard ce mois-ci.
Last week police revealed details of new drug-driving tests to be administered by the roadside, which were received with some amusement. They require suspected drug- drivers to stand on one leg, lean back and touch their nose with their eyes closed, and to count to 30 silently with their eyes shut. This is apparently difficult for those on a drug trip.
La semaine dernière la police a révélé en détail les nouveaux tests de drogue pour la conduite qui seront appliqués sur la route, qui ont été pris avec amusement. Ils demandent aux conducteurs suspectés d'être drogués, de rester debout sur une jambe, de se pencher en arrière et toucher leur né les yeux fermés, et de compter jusqu'à 30 en silence avec les yeux fermés. Cela est apparemment difficile pour ceux qui planent grâce à la drogue.
The advertising company McCann-Erickson has already prepared a television
campaign using Pulp's song Sorted for Es and Whizz, the slogan "Never drive on
drugs" and the pay-off line "then you come down".
However, if the findings are less than frightening on the effects of
marijuana,
they may convince ministers to put more money into raising driver awareness of
fatigue. Tiredness is now blamed for causing 10% of all fatal accidents,
compared with 6% for alcohol and 3% for drugs.
A low-key radio campaign will be launched tomorrow warning drivers to take
breaks.
The report's surprising conclusions will not sway organisations such as the
RAC, which believes there is incontrovertible evidence that drug-driving is a
growing menace. DETR statistics published in January showed a six-fold
increase
in the number of people found to be driving with drugs in their system after
fatal road accidents. The figure jumped from 3% in 1989 to 18%.
Dr Rob Tunbridge, the report's author, refused to reveal his findings before
they were published but said: "If you were to ask me to rank them in order of
priority, fatigue is the worst killer, followed by alcohol, and drugs follow
way behind in third."
Tunbridge admitted that the effect of drugs differed with the individual, the
amount taken, the environment they were taken in and the point at which you
tested reactions.
Cocaine users are known to be alert drivers when they first take the drug, but
then they have a tendency to fall asleep at the wheel. The particular problem
with cannabis is that it stays in a person's system for up to 30 hours but its
effects wear off within a few hours.
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2) Un article du New Scientist du 16 décembre 2000
DON'T BE A DOPE
If you're going to smoke a joint, don't drive home
IT'S official: smoking dope makes you a worse driver. But cannabis has less
effect on driving ability than alcohol, according to a study by the
Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in Crowthorne, Berkshire.
The Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions asked the TRL
Safety Department to investigate the effect of cannabis intoxication on
driving ability. Cannabis is by far the most common illegal drug found in
the bloodstream of road accident victims, and THC-the active ingredient in
cannabis-can remain in the body for more than a month.
Barry Sexton and his colleagues at the TRL recruited 15 volunteers to
complete driving tests while under the influence of low or high doses of
cannabis, or no drug at all. The volunteers either smoked readyrolled
cannabis joints or rolled their own with resin supplied under government
licence. They were then put through their paces on a sophisticated driving
simulator.
The researchers measured their accuracy at steering the car, known as
"tracking ability", and other psychomotor responses, such as hazard
perception and braking responses. They took blood and saliva samples at
regular intervals and also tested the subjects' coordination, balance and
timing.
The first thing the researchers noticed was that the subjects drove more
slowly under the influence of dope, compensating for their intoxication by
driving more cautiously. Tracking ability was the only test criterion that
was adversely affected: the volunteers found it very difficult to follow a
figure-of-eight loop of road when given a high dose. Reaction times to
motorway hazards and performance on cognitive tests in the lab were not
significantly affected.
Trials previously completed under similar test conditions at the TRL have
shown that alcohol and tiredness have a more adverse effect on driving
ability, affecting higher cognitive processes. The results of the cannabis
and driving study agree with similar research carried out in Australia, the
US and Holland.
Pete Henshall of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, which is a British
political party, comments that "any person who is not in full control of
their body should not drive, be it through tiredness, alcohol, cannabis or
drugs ... but everything must be seen in proportion. We need to legalise
and regulate cannabis in a similar way to alcohol to be able to see the
size of the problem."
Jane Eason of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents favours the
roadside tests to spot cannabis intoxication now being tried by British
police. "We would welcome any measure that might make the roads of Britain
safer."
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3) Un article du New Scientist du 19 mars 2002
"L'alcool nuit bien plus à la conduite que la marijuana"
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992063 The World's No.1 Science & Technology News Service
Alcohol impairs driving more than marijuana
Exclusive From New Scientist Print Edition
A single glass of wine will impair your driving more than smoking a joint. And under certain test conditions, the complex way alcohol and cannabis combine to affect driving behaviour suggests that someone who has taken both may drive less recklessly than a person who is simply drunk.
These are the findings of a major new study by British transport researchers. The unpublished research, seen exclusively by New Scientist, stops well short of condoning driving under the influence of even small amounts of cannabis. But in a week which has seen renewed debate in Britain surrounding the criminalisation of cannabis, it throws an uncomfortable spotlight on a problem confronting governments everywhere - how to deter the growing numbers of cannabis users from "dope driving".
Photo: Getty Images
At present there is no accurate test that can reveal whether a driver has taken cannabis before driving, and developing one will not be easy. But even when this problem is cracked, another will remain - where to set the safety threshold for smoking cannabis.
Advocates of zero tolerance say there should be penalties for drivers caught with any amount of recently smoked cannabis in their body. The new research suggests that would only be credible if governments also adopted zero tolerance on drink driving.
Middle of the road
The new study was undertaken by the Transport Research Laboratory in Crowthorne, Berkshire, and confirms the results of a preliminary study more than a year ago. Researchers at the TRL, led by Barry Sexton, gave 15 volunteers doses of cannabis or alcohol, or a combination of both, before letting them loose on an array of psychomotor tests and a sophisticated driving simulator.
The volunteers were given either enough alcohol to raise alcohol levels in the blood to 50 milligrams per 100 millilitres - about 60 per cent of Britain's legal limit of 80 mg/100 ml - or a specially prepared marijuana joint designed to deliver the same high typically experienced by smokers.
In the study, cannabis significantly affected only one criterion, known as tracking ability. Volunteers found it more difficult to hold a constant speed and follow the middle of the road accurately while driving around a figure-of-eight loop. The TRL researchers point out in their draft report that this test requires drivers to hold their concentration for a short time, a task which is particularly badly affected by the intoxicating effects of cannabis.
Cautious driving
However, volunteers drinking the equivalent of a glass of wine fared worse than those who had smoked a joint. Those who were given both alcohol and cannabis performed worse still, reinforcing the idea that alcohol has a cumulative effect when taken with other drugs.
But the study also found that drivers on cannabis tended to be aware of their intoxicated state, and drove more cautiously to compensate. Indeed, doped-up volunteers often rated themselves as being more impaired than police surgeons brought in to evaluate their sobriety.
Surprisingly, drinking alcohol didn't offset this cautious behaviour, opening up the unproven possibility that a driver who is moderately drunk might be better off under some conditions if they had also smoked.
This cautious behaviour is in line with findings by other researchers. "Whereas alcohol promotes risk taking like fast speeds and close following, cannabis promotes conservative driving, but may cause attention problems and misperceptions of time," says Nicholas Ward, technical adviser to the Immortal project - a three-year European Union trial designed to quantify the crash risk drivers face after taking various drugs and medicines.
Arran Frood