MORE ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA AND TRUCKING

We’ve been all over this medical marijuana issue like Snoop Dogg on a bong! The July issue of Truck News, which will hit the streets Friday, examines the issue of medical marijuana use by professional truck drivers in great, great detail.

We’ve done our best to shed light on this issue, because it’s one that will have to be addressed sooner or later. There are currently 40,000 Canadians who hold prescriptions for marijuana. That number is projected to climb to nearly half a million within 10 years, according to Health Canada estimates.

The issue, as it relates to cross-border trucking, is cut and drive. The US DoT does not recognize the use of medical marijuana. If you’re using medical marijuana, just forget about driving stateside. Stay away from the border, end of story. For domestic drivers, where random testing is not common, it’s a different story. Here, it’s very much still a grey area. I’ve approached a couple trucking insurance specialists and they haven’t been able to comment on the insurability of a medical marijuana-using truck driver. This is uncharted territory for them as well.

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James Menzies is editorial director of Today's Trucking and TruckNews.com. He has been covering the Canadian trucking industry for more than 24 years and holds a CDL. Reach him at james@newcom.ca or follow him on Twitter at @JamesMenzies.


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  • There has been little real research into medical marijuana in the last 80 years even tho it was prescribed for centuries. However since it has been available by prescription in California for 20 years there is research there. It Appears that real Medical Marijuana would not contain enough THC to make anyone high. It’s the cannibinoids which provide the health benefits and they don’t make you stoned. The best way to get them is to juice the Whole plant, not smoke it. Smoking is bad for your health. The only study I am aware of about intoxicated driving was done in Australia and it seems pot smokers had fewer accident a than drunks or even sober drivers . It seems more study is needed