Are the signs of marijuana intoxication so familiar to the public that prosecutors can rely on the observations of police in stoned driving cases, or are experts required?
That’s a question the state’s highest court is considering, hearing arguments Friday in the case of Thomas Gerhardt, who was charged with driving under the influence of drugs after a February 2013 traffic stop off Route 146.
Concerns about marijuana-impaired driving and the difficulties in proving marijuana intoxication are likely 2017 agenda items for lawmakers seeking public safety changes to the marijuana legalization law approved by voters in November.
Science has not yet produced a measure of marijuana intoxication on par with the blood alcohol content tests, which provide reliable readings of someone’s sobriety or drunkenness.
Marijuana hampers drivers’ ability to judge distance, reduces peripheral vision and coordination, and makes it more challenging to stay in a lane, according to American Automobile Association Massachusetts public and legislative affairs director Mary Maguire, who campaigned against the marijuana ballot question and said pot also impairs judgment and reaction times.
In a written brief, Jacobstein said while the average juror might lack an understanding of marijuana’s effect and its impact on driving, he or she is likely familiar with stereotypes of marijuana intoxication. Jacobstein pointed out the prosecution’s brief quoted a National Geographic article that pot can “lead to temporary laughing sickness, intense shoegazing, amnesia about what happened two seconds ago, and a ravenous yearning for Cheez Doodles.”
On the heels of a deadly shooting at a Florida airport on Friday, the Massachusetts State Police and MassPort announced they will put “enhanced security tactics” in place at Logan International Airport.
In a joint statement, the agencies said the airport will supplement its routine security with additional measures out of an abundance of caution.
“We continue to maintain a multi-layered and rigorous security plan at Logan Airport, which includes frontline troopers, tactical units, commercial vehicle inspection units, intelligence gathering, and other overt and covert assets, including roadway blockades,” the statement read. “Drawing from its operational planning, (MSP) Troop F has enhanced security tactics in place and continues to maintain constant situational awareness.”
The Broward County sheriff’s office tweeted Friday that a call came in around 12:55 p.m. reporting gunfire at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The sheriff’s office said “multiple people are dead” and that eight people were transported to hospitals with injuries.
One suspect was in custody by about 1:40 p.m., according to the Broward County sheriff’s office.
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Amid priorities that might be familiar any other year, or century — wages, taxes and crime — Senate President Stan Rosenberg on Wednesday directed legislative focus to an issue that not long ago would have been the stuff of science fiction: self-driving cars.
“In as few as five years from now autonomous vehicles will again turn our world upside down,” Rosenberg told colleagues after being re-elected president of the Senate. The Amherst Democrat keyed in on public finance, legal, liability and safety as challenges for lawmakers in regards to the new technology.
House members agreed autonomous vehicles present a number of policy considerations and the Baker administration has assembled a working group on the issue, which has already held its first meeting.
While lawmakers have not determined how to approach the technology that might one day revolutionize transportation and other mobility issues, officials in Boston and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation have started to explore self-driving car policy.
In September, Boston announced it was selected by the World Economic Forum as a test site for developing autonomous vehicle policy, and in October Gov. Charlie Baker signed an executive order establishing an automated vehicles working group and creating processes for approving vehicle tests.
“The hope is that through this working group established under the executive order we can work together to figure out if there is a legislative approach that’s needed. For the moment we’re doing it through existing regulatory means,” Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack told the News Service.