IVDIRM: A New Methodology for Examining Drug- and Alcohol-Impaired Driving

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管有证据表明美国道路上与大麻有关的司机的患病率正在上升，但吸毒驾驶是一个未被充分研究的问题。一些州可能很快将大麻合法化或进一步将大麻合法化，这可能会加剧这种情况。然而，大麻的使用在多大程度上损害了驾驶并增加了撞车风险，目前还不完全清楚。尽管大多数车祸风险研究表明，大麻阳性司机发生车祸的几率明显更高，但这些发现并不普遍。此外，即使是报告风险升高的研究也无法适应另一种解释，即观察到的大麻与撞车之间的关系是虚假的，完全可以用冒险行为的个体差异来解释（即，具有冒险性格的人更有可能吸毒和鲁莽驾驶）。最后，本研究的独特之处是有机会沿着δ -9-太氢大麻酚（THC）吸收/消除曲线（上升与下降）评估驾驶性能。由于大麻的主观快感和血管效应遵循逆时针滞后，相同浓度（ng/ml）的四氢大麻酚对应的两种截然不同的效应取决于使用者是在曲线的上升腿还是下降腿。这是非常有价值的信息，因为最近各州正在讨论大麻使用合法化和确定驾驶时的药物本身水平。本文描述的是一种新的研究方法——体内驾驶损伤研究方法，它有可能填补该领域对药物驾驶的理解空白。本文提出的应用研究是为了验证这种新方法的可行性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Drugged driving is an understudied issue, despite evidence that the prevalence of cannabis-involved drivers on America's roadway is raising. The potential that some states soon will legalize or further decriminalize cannabis use may exacerbate this. Yet the extent to which cannabis use impairs driving and elevates crash risk is not entirely clear. Although most crash-risk studies suggest significantly higher odds of crash involvement for cannabis-positive drivers, these findings are not universal. Further, even studies that do report elevated risk fail to accommodate the alternative explanation that the observed relationship between cannabis-involvement and crashes is spurious and explained wholly by individual differences in risk-taking (i.e., persons with a risk-taking personality are both more likely to take drugs and to drive recklessly). Finally, unique to this study is the opportunity to assess driving performance along the delta-9-terahydrocannabinol (THC) absorption/elimination curve (ascending versus descending). Because the subjective high and vascular effects of cannabis follow a counterclockwise hysteresis, the same concentration (ng/ml) of THC corresponds with two very different effects depending on whether the user is on the ascending or descending leg of curve. This is extremely valuable information given recent discussions in States legalizing marijuana use and determining drug per se levels for driving. Described herein is a new research methodology-the In-Vivo Driving Impairment Research Method-that has potential to fill gaps in the field's understanding of drug-involved driving. Proposed in this application is a study to test the feasibility of this new method.