Feature Story
Cannabis-Related Cognitive Field Sobriety Tests vs . Simulator Studies
by Clayton Stallings
Cognitive . This word has been thrown around a lot in the current climate of our political arena , and although I ’ m sure we would all like to give both presidential candidates our own cognitive test , shouldn ’ t we all want to be just as involved in how we receive the cognitive tests for cannabis impairment ?
I think it ’ s a better option than being thrown constant curveballs in someone else ’ s simulation control study .
Cannabis tolerance has been found to play a crucial role in both simulation and cognitive studies . However , in cognitive studies like Ryan Hutton ’ s Extract-ED Green Labs , you are at least interacting with some of the rule enforcers who may have been taught their whole life to think a certain way about cannabis . ( See my July article for more information and the history of the Green Labs , or go to https :// www . extract-ed . com /.)
Drug Recognition Experts ( DREs ) giving cannabis-related Field Sobriety Tests ( Cognitive ) versus Simulator Studies * Cognitive Test Disclaimer Award – The negative side of relying on those tests is solely the subjectivity of the officer who is testing your physical and cognitive state to operate a motor vehicle .
* Cognitive ( according to Merriam-Webster ) adjective cog · ni · tive ( käg-nə-tiv ) 1 : of , relating to , being , or involving conscious intellectual activity ( such as thinking , reasoning , or remembering ) cognitive impairment 2 : based on or capable of being reduced to empirical factual knowledge cognitively
The Cognitive Flip Side : In the Green Labs studies , witnessing so many police officers see that consumption is not necessarily “ impairment ” with experienced cannabis users is a starting place .
The Simulation Flip Side : In 2019 , The UCI Center for the Study of Cannabis and Driving did a study that included volunteers consuming both alcohol and cannabis to show how driving ability was affected after using both in combination . The Iowa Driving Safety Research Institute ’ s NADS-1 simulator was used for the research . 1 What are they trying to prove ? Not every cannabis user consumes alcohol and cannabis at the same time . What if , instead of trying to compare driving performance between a cannabis smoker and a nonsmoker , set up the same obstacles to compare the tolerance between someone who has smoked it and one who has not ( and with no alcohol involved )? Or test a person before they smoke cannabis and then again after they smoke it . Also , sometimes cannabis calms the nerves of a driver , but no one seems to be testing that in simulation studies . Simulators Test Disclaimer Award – They are literary trying to set cannabis participants up for failure !
Police officers preform sobriety tests on a cannabis consumer at Ryan Hutton ’ s Extract-ED Green Labs , which play a critical role in officers understanding the true effects cannabis has on a consumer . Officers learn how to interact better with a suspected cannabis consumer during a traffic stop rather than assuming the worst . Ultimately , such education helps the public and the officers .
I would say most of the students and law officers who have taken Hutton ’ s Green Labs have never experienced or witnessed someone all day who has been consuming cannabis . At the Green Labs , police officers not only get to put volunteers through two rounds of field sobriety tests ( once under low doses of cannabis and another after higher doses ), but officers also get to ask volunteers tons of questions along the way and discuss the results with all of them at the conclusion of the day .
It is many of the officers ’ first time interacting with professionals in the cannabis industry as we not only bring them in to teach the medical benefits of cannabis but also to teach them about the difficulties commercial cannabis , manufacturing , or dispensary management face . Many of these same professionals also volunteer in the two consumption rounds followed by field sobriety tests and
32 August 2024