He was toking up while driving, but getting high has nothing to do with making bad decisions.
From TCPalm:
HOBE SOUND — A 43-year-old man was arrested on drug charges after sheriff’s deputies stopped him when they saw a toddler partially hanging out of his car window.
Hobe Sound resident John W. Williams told Martin County Sheriff’s deputies he had just put out a marijuana cigarette when he was stopped along Bridge Road on Wednesday afternoon.
Authorities said they searched his vehicle and found a baggie of pot and a manila envelope with cocaine inside.
Williams, 43, was arrested on misdemeanor marijuana possession and felony cocaine possession charges. His 2-year-old grandson was released to his mother.
The pot is a misdemeanor mostly because people regard pot as harmless. Harmless enough to to smoke while driving. It’s interesting that the man waited until he wasn’t driving to snort his coke but saw nothing wrong with getting high while driving his precious grandson around.
h/t Crime Scene KC
Surely Florida state law forbids the operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence of cannabis as well as alcohol. In Canada upon first conviction of “impaired driving” that is operating a motor vehicle, which includes aircraft, motorized boats, railway locomotives, self propelled lawn mowers & golf carts as well as automobiles and trucks, while under the influence of alcohol or a drug would result in a substantial fine and / or imprisonment plus a minimum driving ban for one year. No reasonable person could argue that cannabis is harmless but that it is at least as dangerous as alcohol. Driving on a public highway is not a right but rather a privilege which must be revoked for those that abuse it.
Indeed. But many people (and I would agree that they are not reasonable) do in fact argue that smoking pot is not harmful and that anytime a person high on marijuana does something outrageous it’s an aberration.
Pot has a reputation here in the states for being mild and less potent than alcohol which I would say inhibits rational discussion of legalization and what that would entail. That’s why I created this category. People need to take responsibility for their actions if they want to decriminalize recreational drug use, and need to admit that crime rates and situations where the state needs to intervene in people’s lives (child welfare etc) would increase if we legalized.