What I don’t understand is why you think it’s ok to be “high” and carry/possess or in your quote use a firearm at the range. If that is not a safety issue, why is having a couple of drinks a big deal? In my opinion being “under the influence” means what ever substance you ingested has the ability to alter/impair your judgment, thus creating a safety issue to yourself and others around you.
It may just be that your opinion doesn't correlate with reality.
There is no comparison in the degree of "impairment", even for only a couple of drinks. Stainless is right when he speaks of apples and oranges. For example, alcohol has physiological effects to which one may become accustomed only to a limited degree (I'm talking about mental accustomization, rather that physical dependence). This is untrue (or drastically less true) with marijuana.
That is to say, the perceived effects of marijuana are far more dependent on mental accustomization (experience). With alcohol, once you've reached a certain point of consumption relative to your physical tolerance, you
will suffer objective impairment of normal ability. There is no degree of "experience" which renders this untrue, lending some (flimsy) justifiability to arbitrary quantification of impairment based on consumption (e.g. BAC). This cannot be said for marijuana.
Plenty of research to back that up.
This is why it is ridiculous to define "impaired" as anything at all, absent concrete evidence of, you know, "impairment", such as an inability to coordinate or to react normally.
It's ridiculous to declare someone "impaired" if you cannot show actual impairment, as defined by a significant reduction in ability compared to statistical norms as well as the individual baseline.
Alcohol is indeed impairing (for most people) after "only a couple of drinks", by this objective standard. Marijuana may or may not be, depending on the user and, of course, the quantity consumed.
Not to mention that there
are individuals who are not objectively or demonstrably "impaired" after those fabled "couple of drinks", thanks to
physical tolerance. But, hey, we'll all be killed by idiots if government doesn't legislate for the lowest common denominator, right? Thank god we have our benevolent dictator-parent to keep us all in line, and make us safe. :uhoh:
