Driving a car after drugs poses the same risks as drinking and driving. In order to travel safely on the road, the driver must be fully concentrated and capable of making quick decisions. Drugs impair this efficiency and make it impossible to drive a car safely, which can lead to dire consequences. Find out how marijuana, cocaine, LSD, ecstasy and other drugs affect the driver.
Drug drivingcarries a similar risk of an accident and the same legal consequences as drinking alcohol. Alldrugs , including boosters, interfere with the senses and affect the ability to safely drive even the most experienced drivers.
The effects of drug use and driving
Depending on the substance used, drugs can have a different influence on a person's psychomotor skills. Some delay, others accelerate reactions, change the way of thinking and perceiving the surrounding reality. The most common drug effects that significantly affect driving ability include:
- distortions of visual perception (disturbances in accommodation, visual acuity, speed of reaction, in more severe cases, visual delusions and hallucinations);
- distortions of auditory perception (disturbances of hearing acuity, localization of the direction from which the sound is flowing, in more severe cases, delusions and auditory hallucinations);
- disturbance of concentration, attention, psychomotor coordination, and as a result a significant delay in reaction time;
- distraction of thought processes, the inability to selectively synthesize information, which in road traffic contains many factors and is extremely variable in a short time;
- inadequate self-confidence with a dramatically limited ability to correctly assess the risk on the road;
- inducing sleepiness and fatigue or increasing them;
- unwanted physical symptoms (nausea, dizziness, muscle cramps and weakness, trembling hands, sweating, breathing faster or slower, palpitations or severely slowing down, hot and cold flushes);
- instabilityemotional, irritable, prone to impulsive and aggressive reactions, or vice versa - anxiety;
- very serious psychotic disorders - hallucinations-delusional: if they occur while driving a vehicle, they immediately create a life-threatening situation.
See also: After a sleepless night, the driver feels like he has 2 per mille of alcohol! Did you know?
Driving while under the influence of drugs - consequences
The ultimate impact of drugs on an individual human body is impossible to predict, and it can be different every time! It depends on many factors - the type of substance, the dose taken, the person's psychophysical characteristics, immunity on a given day, weather, time of day, level of fatigue, and even what we ate and drank! Besides, you can never be sure what you are taking because drugs can be mixed with other hazardous chemicals. However, all such measures severely limit the ability to drive. Depending on the drugs taken - the most popular ones can cause the following effects:
Amphetamine- stimulates, gives an apparent feeling of improving concentration of attention, "sharpening the senses", which increases self-confidence. In fact, it disrupts visual and auditory perception. Drivers under its influence tend to take risky, reckless driving at high speed, and their attention is distracted. They see an excess of unnecessary details for driving and lose the ability to see the most important ones, such as road signs! Under these circumstances, drivers find it too difficult to drive, even at legal speeds. In extreme cases, amphetamines can lead to fainting and collapse, i.e. conditions that create an immediate life-threatening situation.
Marijuana, hash- slow down and distort the perception of visual and auditory stimuli, cause states of apathy, euphoria or indifference, as a result of which the driver, under their influence, easily and quickly makes dangerous decisions. They quickly lead to the exhaustion of attention and concentration, make you sleepy without being aware of the risk of falling asleep! In extreme circumstances, they cause psychosis or can lead to cardio-respiratory failure.
Heroin- causes visual accommodation disorders, and thus visual disturbances, especially at night. It also slows down responses to auditory stimuli. In addition, it causes a state of dementia and reduces the ability to concentrate - with higher doses almost to zero. It leads to a feeling of bliss or indifference - also in the face of the traffic situation!The driver, under its influence, is unable to properly assess his own speed, and does not perceive most of the details of what is happening on the road. Heroin can cause you to fall asleep at the wheel, fainting due to suppression of the respiratory and circulatory action.
Cocaine- its effect on the driver is similar to that of amphetamines, but cocaine further disturbs the driver's awareness. The perception of external stimuli can be extremely chaotic, the driver loses the ability to selectively analyze them. As a result, the driver notices, for example, the color of the hair and the face of the driver in a vehicle that is just passing by, but on the other side does not notice the "Stop" sign! Cocaine also increases blood pressure, respiratory rate, and heart rate. Mentally, it gives a feeling of omnipotence, which can lead to daring and dangerous driving.
LSD- especially dangerous due to the states it causes, i.e. the feeling of being alienated from one's own body, delusions, hallucinations and delusions. It strongly disturbs any assessment and analysis of the situation on the road at the level of perception, transmission and synthesis of information. It poses a clear threat to life on the road.
MDMA (ecstasy)- affects the driver similar to amphetamines. It can give the driver the illusion that he can still drive even when he is too tired to do it safely.